Medvedev to meet Zardari, Karzai at SCO sidelines

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai for bilateral and trilateral talks and will discuss the issues in the region, on the sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

"The three leaders will discuss the issues linked to the situation in these countries as well as in the region on the whole," Kremlin foreign policy aide Sergei Prikhodko said.

The SCO summit of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan opens today in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.

Pakistan is an observer nation and Afghanistan is a special guest of the regional grouping.

Prikhodko did not rule out the possibility of the SCO expanding its interaction with the US and NATO on Afghanistan and the Yekaterinburg summit is expected to discuss this.

"This interaction could embrace transit of supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan via SCO countries, joint efforts in rendering practical assistance to Afghanistan in rebuilding economy," Prikhodko said.

He, however, ruled out dispatching of SCO military contingent to Afghanistan.

"We are not ready for this and do not (consider) this as our task," the Kremlin aide said.