IRAN - Aug 16 - Iran Leader Denounces US Missile Shield Plan.

Iran uses the meeting of a regional security organisation here to lash out at American plans for a missile defense shield, while President Vladimir Putin of Russia took an indirect swipe at Washington's "unilateral" foreign policy. Speaking at the one-day annual summit meeting of the Shanghai co-operation Organisation, or SCO, President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad of Iran said that the planned defense system, to be based in Eastern Europe, was "a threat to more than one country", asserting that it would affect "a large part of Asia and SCO members". The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, established six years ago, brings together Russia, China, and the former Soviet states of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Its stated aims are to combat terrorism and fortify regional collaboration; Iran has observer status. Beyond its security aspect, the organisation has provided a forum for criticism of US policies. At its 2005 meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, member countries demanded that Washington provide a timetable for ending its military presence in Central Asia. Putin, without mentioning the US directly, called for a "multipolar" world order, in line with his frequent criticisms of what he considers the Bush administration's unilateral foreign policies. "Any attempts to solve global and regional problems unilaterally are hopeless", the Russian leader said. A joint statement at the conference's end echoed the Russian president, saying "modern challenges and security threats can only be effectively countered through united efforts of the international community". Analysts say the organisation is increasingly becoming a counterweight to Western influence in Central Asia. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the US based troops in southern Uzbekistan for operations in Afghanistan, but withdrew them in 2005 after Washington criticized the Uzbek authorities for their forceful crackdown on antigovernment demonstrators. The US has about 900 troops in Kyrgyzstan. "What unites" the organisation's countries "are genuine common concerns about security, about border issues, and about trade and energy", said Michael Hall, a Central Asia expert formerly with the International Crisis Group in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital. "There is a certain sense of wanting to let the US know that they're a force to be reckoned with". Russia and China, however, have also come to employ the organisation as a means to further their own economic interests, analysts say. Both countries are keen to secure Central Asia's considerable energy reserves for their own use. Russia is also set on maintaining preeminence in a region it has long considered within its traditional sphere of influence. This week, officials at China National Petroleum announced that China and Turkmenistan, the second largest gas producer in the former Soviet Union after Russia, would form working groups to help supply China with 30 billion cubic meters of gas annually over 30 years. China is increasingly looking to Central Asia, especially Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, with some of the world's largest untapped oil and gas deposits, to feed its growing energy appetite. Moscow has locked up long-term gas supply contracts with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in an effort to back up its supplies, and reached an agreement to pipe Turkmen gas through Russia. The pipeline deal in particular was considered a commercial coup and a setback to the US, which hopes to ship Turkmenistan's gas across the Caspian Sea to European markets. As a further indication of the group's aspirations to become more than a regional security body, its summit meeting Thursday also included the presidents of Mongolia, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, and ministers from India and Pakistan. Iran, India and Pakistan have applied for full memberships. This week, for the first time, the group is conducting joint military exercises in Chelyabinsk, Russia, involving more than 6,000 troops. However, contradictions and differences within the group may ultimately hinder its development into a body to counterbalance Western alliances like NATO. "The idea of Russia and China as allies sort of stretches the limits of the imagination", said Hall, referring to longstanding differences. Relations among the Central Asian states are also problematic. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan each consider themselves the region's dominant power, while the other Central Asia states view Kyrgyzstan, which has the region's most democratic government, with suspicion.