The Shanghai Cooperation Organization yesterday called for the US-led anti-terrorist coalition in Afghanistan to set a deadline for withdrawing forces from member states.
Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan host US bases whose troops are involved in the Afghanistan operation.
The SCO, at a summit in the Kazakh capital Astana, said in a declaration that the deadline should be set in light of reduced fighting in Afghanistan.
"We support and will support the international coalition which is carrying out an anti-terror campaign in Afghanistan and we have taken note of the progress made in the effort to stabilize the situation," the declaration said.
"As the active military phase in the anti-terror operation in Afghanistan is nearing completion, the SCO would like the coalition's members to decide on the deadline for the use of the temporary infrastructure and for their military contingents' presence in those countries."
Earlier yesterday, leaders at the summit vowed to step up security cooperation and accused unnamed outside forces of trying to destabilize Central Asia.
Chinese President Hu Jintao told the summit: "We have to make every effort to step up security cooperation or else all our talks about stability will be pointless."
Russian President Vladimir Putin said: "New regional threats are of a trans-border nature ... There are people who place orders and execute them. Our task is to find them and render them harmless and to prevent their activity."
Islam Karimov, the president of Uzbekistan, said radical Islamists are among the forces seeking instability in Central Asia.
Hu said the future of the SCO depends on whether members can translate consensus into action and render plans into reality.
"As long as we take implementation as the central piece of our future work and untiringly do concrete things and seek concrete results in deepening and expanding pragmatic cooperation and solidly advance the realization of various set targets, the SCO would surely be full of vitality and continuously bear abundant fruits," he told the summit.
The SCO, founded in Shanghai in June 2001, groups China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Mongolia became an observer in 2004. India, Iran and Pakistan were accepted as observers at the current summit.
Hu said the development of the SCO has entered an important stage and members should strive to translate the organization's cooperation potential into actual results and adequately cope with challenges brought by complex international and regional changes.
He listed security, economic and human resources cooperation as primary tasks facing the organization.
"Without stability, there can be no talk of any development," Hu said, urging member countries and the whole region to promote the implementation of documents and agreements on fighting extremism, separatism and terrorism, and conduct effective information exchange and step up research on the establishment of emergency mechanisms.
On economic cooperation, Hu asked for more efforts to implement a multilateral economic cooperation plan and work for the early establishment of a banking union.
He also asked to explore bilateral and multilateral cooperation modes that involve both governments and enterprises.
Hu urged contacts and cooperation between the SCO and international financial institutions to facilitate deeper economic cooperation.
The leaders agreed to hold the next summit in China in 2006.