The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will not admit new members at this stage, SCO Executive Secretary Zhang Deguang said here on Thursday.

The SCO is not ready to admit new members presently because of the lack of "relevant legal basis", Zhang told a press conference after a meeting of prime ministers of the six member states of the SCO -- China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

However, the current activity of the SCO does not mean that the organization is to become an enclosed bloc, even politically, said Zhang.

"The organization will never become a military bloc, which does not correspond to its objective," he said.

Heads of government of the six countries attended the meeting that opened here Wednesday, with discussions focused on issues of anti-terrorism and economic cooperation among SCO member countries.

Senior representatives of Mongolia, Pakistan, India and Iran also attended the conference for the first time as observers.

The SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Center is highly effective and its fight against terrorism is closely related to the combat against drug trafficking because terrorists might get funding from drug traffickers, said Zhang.

The fight against drug dealing, in Afghanistan in particular, is one of the tasks of priority for the SCO, said Zhang, adding that a draft on the creation of an SCO-Afghanistan contact has been submitted to the Afghan government.

Commenting on the call launched by the SCO early this year for the United States to set a date for the withdrawal of its military forces in Central Asia, the SCO executive secretary said the organization launched an appeal, not an ultimatum.

"The SCO launched the appeal because the active phase of the anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan was over," he said, "It is only a matter of deadlines. We wonder when the withdrawals will take place. This is not an ultimatum."

In July, the SCO called on the United States to establish a timetable for pulling out its military bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, set up in 2001 as part of the US-led military operations in Afghanistan.

The appeal should not be viewed with the logic of Cold War, said Zhang, "The Cold War is gone. We should fully abandon those stereotypes of thinking."

On the economic cooperation, Zhang said the SCO member states are planning a more active cooperation in energy, one of the priorities of the organization.

He added that the cooperation will comprise several aspects, from the construction of oil and gas pipelines, oil prospecting, development of production technologies to the use of water resources.

The SCO is at the beginning of the process to build a common strategy of cooperation in energy, the means of delivery and markets, he added.

The SCO was founded in June 2001, and inaugurated an Anti-Terrorist Center in the Uzbek capital Tashkent in June 2004.

Source: Xinhua