The foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have approved a project on the procedure for the adoption of new members, Uzbekistan's top diplomat said on Saturday.

"The document sets out the start of the process of forming a legal base for the expansion of the organization," Vladimir Norov said at a Tashkent meeting ahead of summit in June.

The SCO includes Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The organization was established in 2001 to help ensure security along the border between China and former Soviet republics. But later it transformed into a broader regional grouping that aims at promoting cooperation between its member states and regional security.

The minster released a statement after the meeting saying they intended to develop cooperation in the fight against "terrorism, separatism and extremism."

Norov also said that the ministers had expressed their "solidarity with the people of Kyrgyzstan in the current difficult situation."

The Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan has seen continued unrest between the provisional authorities and supporters of deposed president Kurmanbek Bakiyev ever since violent street protests in April forced Bakiyev to flee first the capital and then the country.

Bakiyev is currently in Belarus awaiting a ruling on an extradition request from the country's interim government.

TASHKENT, May 22 (RIA Novosti)