Iran Grabs Limelight at Asian Security Summit

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SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Leaders of Central Asian countries converged on Shanghai on Wednesday for a security summit where they are likely to be upstaged by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran's nuclear stand-off with the West.

Leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's six members, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, meet in Shanghai on Thursday to discuss oil, terrorism and border controls.

Ahmadinejad is attending as an SCO observer.

They received a red-carpet reception as they arrived throughout the afternoon, with schoolchildren presenting bunches of flowers under each country's national flag before they were whisked off down specially cleared highways to the conference venues.

Students, civil servants and some workers in Shanghai have been given five days off as the city has all but closed down to ensure security.

A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, Qin Gang, told Reuters that the members might discuss Iran's nuclear dispute with the United States and Western European powers, but that would not be the main topic.

``The main theme will be the SCO's future development. Iran is an observer member, but the focus will be on the SCO itself,'' Qin said.

Iran is under increasing pressure to reply to a package of incentives and penalties offered by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, which include China and Russia, along with Germany, aimed at persuading it to give up uranium enrichment.

If Iran rejects the package, the Western powers may push for U.N.-backed sanctions, a step China and Russia have resisted.

The SCO's proclaimed purpose is to fight what member states call ``terrorist'' and ``separatist'' threats to their rule, though opposition critics and human rights groups have said that often these threats are only from unarmed opponents.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said all six SCO countries had committed serious violations of humanitarian law in the name of counter-terrorism.

``Of particular concern are SCO members' records with respect to extraditions, renditions, extrajudicial executions, treatment of terrorism suspects in police custody, and the treatment of religious dissidents and of ethnic minorities, among others, who peacefully advocate independence,'' it said in a statement.