The post-Soviet CSTO security bloc said on Monday that the current steps taken by the government of Kyrgyzstan were insufficient to deal with the ethnic violence in the country.

After a meeting in Moscow of member states' national security chiefs, the Collective Security Treaty Organization called on the interim government of Kyrgyzstan to take all necessary additional steps to quickly restore order in the country.

"The efforts by the provisional government of Kyrgyzstan to stabilize the situation in the country are still insufficient," the CSTO said in a statement.

The Russia-dominated grouping, which also comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, said that the secretaries of members' security councils "developed concrete proposals aimed at reducing ethnic tensions" to present to CSTO presidents.

Kyrgyzstan has asked Russia to send troops to help deal with the violence in the south of the country, where the government says 124 people have died.

So far, Russia has only sent humanitarian aid and 150 paratroopers to ensure security at its Kant airbase near the capital, Bishkek, in the north of the country.

The possible deployment of peacekeepers was discussed at the CSTO meeting and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said the members hoped measures would be "coordinated soon."

He added that the meeting participants "did not rule out the use of any means on the CSTO agenda."

Kyrgyz interim authorities said Monday a well-known politician suspected of organizing mass riots in Kyrgyzstan has been detained.

Former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who fled the country in April when the opposition took power following violent protests, denied from Belarus that he had any involvement in the rioting.

More than 75,000 ethnic Uzbeks have reportedly fled Kyrgyzstan to take refuge in Uzbekistan following the unrest.

MOSCOW, June 14 (RIA Novosti)