The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which groups China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, holds its 2006 summit in Shanghai Thursday.

The following is some basic information about Kazakhstan.

Geography: Located in Central Asia, Kazakhstan borders Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and China. Kazakhstan is 2.73 million square km in area.

Population: 15.21 million, of whom 53 percent are Kazakhs.

Capital: Astana

National language: Kazakh

Natural resources: The reserves of both cadmium and phosphorus stand in the second place in the world. It has the biggest reserves of copper, lead, zinc and molybdenum in Asia. Kazakhstan also abounds in coal, oil and natural gas reserves. Its Verified reserves of coal and oil amount to 3.94 billion tons and 10 billion tons respectively ,with natural gas reserves standing at 2 trillion cubic meters.