China and Russia yesterday agreed to further strengthen the role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the battle against terrorism.

President Jiang Zemin, during a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin - calling a June pact signed in Shanghai to fight terrorism, separatism and extremism as "foresighted" - said the task has become more urgent under the current conditions.

The Shanghai pact will conduce to the SCO's more effective crackdown on the three forces in the region, Jiang added.

The organization was upgraded from the former Shanghai Five in June. It also groups Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Putin is presently in Shanghai to attend the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting over the weekend. Apart from economic issues, anti-terrorism has been listed as a topic in the wake of the terrorist attack on the United States in September. Most countries, including China and Russia, support the fight against terrorism - a threat also faced by China and Russia.

According to a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Jiang and Putin agreed that the Chechen and East Turkistan terrorist forces also personify international terrorism, and should be sternly opposed and crushed.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday, when responding to the European Parliament's permission allowing the East Turkistan National Conference to hold a seminar on its premises, said the force for East Turkistan is one of terrorism, with the objective of splitting China.

The ministry accused the force of closely colluding with international terrorist organizations to undertake violent terrorist acts in China and its neighboring countries.

China and Russia share common interests and identical stands on anti-terrorism, said Jiang during yesterday's meeting.

He reiterated China's opposition to all forms of terrorism, regardless of its target, time and place of occurrence.

Jiang added that China supports anti-terrorism actions but stressed that such actions should be clearly targeted to avoid causing innocent casualties.

He also said that anti-terrorism actions must adhere to the purposes and principles of the United Nations' Charter and the norms of international laws, and fully respect the leading role of the UN and its Security Council.

He called for a consistent attitude and standard to be adopted on anti-terrorism.

(China Daily October 21, 2001)