Security grouping reaches out to Iran, risking US criticism

The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, a regional security group that includes China and Russia, meets this week filled with a new-found sense of power but risking criticism from the United States over its embrace of Iran.

Originally conceived in 1996 as a body to handle border issues in central Asia, the SCO gained a new sense of mission in fighting terrorism after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US.

The group shed its reputation as a talk shop last year after members called on the US-led coalition in Afghanistan to set deadlines for its withdrawal from military bases and other facilities in SCO countries.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presence at the meeting this year and suggestions Iran might one day be admitted as a full member will overshadow other issues at the annual summit tomorrow.

Members include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The presidents of Pakistan and Mongolia will also attend as observers. India, an observer, will send its oil minister, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai will be present as a guest.

'For all the limitations of what the SCO has done, they have come to be perceived as powerful,' said Matthew Oresman, senior adviser to the China and Eurasia Forum, an independent group affiliated with the Washington-based School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

The meeting this week is not expected to announce full membership for Iran, but inviting the country has attracted both world attention and criticism from the US.