SCO Foreign Ministers Meet

(epa)

May 15, 2006 -- The foreign ministers of the six countries in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are holding talks today in the Chinese city that gave the group its name.

The meeting of the ministers from Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan comes in advance of next month's scheduled summit of heads of state of the six countries.

The foreign ministers were expected to discuss regional security issues, among them international tensions over the Iranian nuclear program. China and Russia, both permanent members of the UN Security Council, have resisted imposing tough measures aimed at forcing Iran to halt uranium enrichment.

It wasn't immediately clear if Iran, which is an official observer to the SCO, sent a representative to today's meeting.

(AP, ITAR-TASS)