Beijing: A Central Asian security bloc created to combat Islamic extremism has defended its decision to give Iran observer status, saying that contrary to US beliefs, the Islamic regime does not support terrorism.
"We cannot abide by other countries calling our observer nations sponsors of terror," the Chinese chief of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Zhang Deguang, said on Tuesday.
"We would not have invited them if we believed they sponsored terror," he added.
Zhang's statement followed comments by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's on Saturday that he couldn't understand why the SCO would want to bring the leading terrorist nation in the world into an organisation that says it's against terror.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was expected to attend the group's Shanghai summit meeting next week.
China and Russia reportedly offered Tehran - now an SCO observer - full membership in April, but Zhang said Tuesday the group was not planning to induct any new members.
The SCO's member states are Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, while its other observers are India, Mongolia and Pakistan.
The group, which is dominated by Beijing and Moscow, was started a decade ago to clamp down on Islamic extremism, but in recent years has taken steps to expand its scope to include promoting members' economic, trade, social and cultural ties.
China and Russia have opposed US-led efforts to impose UN sanctions on Iran, which Washington and other governments say is trying to produce nuclear weapons.
Beijing and Moscow supported a package of incentives, presented to Iran Tuesday and aimed at persuading it to curb its nuclear program.
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