MOSCOW, June 19 (RIA Novosti) - A regional security group uniting Russia, China and four Central Asian states is not anti-American, a Russian coordinator said Monday.
Officials in the United States criticized the Shanghai Cooperation Organization for inviting the president of Iran - an SCO observer - to the group's sixth annual summit last week. Both Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said the presence of Iran, which they described as a leading state sponsor of terrorism and is known to be hostile to Washington, clashed with the SCO's anti-terrorism priorities.
But Vitaly Vorobyov, who is also a Russian ambassador at large, played down U.S. media speculation after the summit that the SCO could evolve from a security and economic forum into a military alliance alternative to NATO.
"This is not an anti-American organization," he said.
As one of the six negotiators on Iran's controversial nuclear research program, the U.S. has been pushing for UN economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic, which says it is enriching uranium for civilian projects only.
Addressing a roundtable in RIA Novosti on security problems in Central Asia, Vorobyov said that the U.S. administration had shown high interest in the event and made a significant contribution to it via electronic media.
Vorobyov said the organization - which comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - had become a global rather than a regional group.
Sergei Markov, the director of the Institute of Political Studies, a think tank, said the SCO "is the only organization without the U.S. or any of its allies."
"It gives the organization increased authority, including in security issues," he said.
The SCO member states have been pushing for the U.S. to withdraw its military units from Uzbekistan where American forces have been deployed to conduct a U.S.-led anti-terrorist campaign in neighboring Afghanistan.
Last year, the U.S. applied for observer status in the forum at the same time as Iran, India and Pakistan, but the request was turned down.
