President Hu addresses SCO summit

Chinese President Hu Jintao said Thursday that China proposes that Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) focus its attention on security and economic issues.

Speaking at a press conference following the 2004 summit meeting of the SCO, Hu said that practical cooperation will keep the SCO full of vitality as it brings concrete interests and opportunities to SCO members and their people.

The Tashkent Declaration signed by the presidents of the six SCO members Thursday declared that the SCO has finished its preliminary stage of establishing an organization and has begun a new stage of full-range cooperation.

"To realize that target, we must jointly fight the 'three forces' of terrorism, separatism and extremism, deal with transnational threats and curb drug smuggling to maintain nationalsecurity and social stability of the SCO members," Hu said.

Security has been a priority issue of the SCO that was founded by Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in 2001. The six members adopted a joint convention on the fight against the three forces when it was founded.

At the current meeting, the six countries adopted an agreement on cooperation in fighting illegal dealing in drugs.

Hu stressed that the SCO should also focus its attention on economic cooperation among members.

The SCO has decided to establish five specialized working groups concerning e-commerce, customs, quality inspection, investment promotion and transportation facilitation.

Hu said that five groups should start to work as soon as possible and put forward proposals for closer economic cooperation of the members.