CHINA-IRAN-NUCLEAR-CASIA-RUSSIA-SUMMIT

Military policemen wait in trucks near the venue of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting in Shanghai 14 June 2006. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was scheduled to arrive in Shanghai 14 June, renewing the focus on the role China may play in resolving the standoff over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program and he will attend the SCO annual leaders’ summit on 15 June which brings together the presidents of original member states China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan along with Uzbekistan, which joined in 2001. The leaders of Iran, Pakistan and Mongolia attend, after their nations were granted observer status in 2004, as will Afghan President Hamid Karzai as an official „guest”. AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTON