The first summit of the member states of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) opened in the Kazakh city of Almaty Tuesday with discussion focused on issues of regional security and cooperation.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Russian President Valdimir Putin are among the heads of state or government and representatives from the 16 member states attending the summit to deliver speeches at the conference.

The 16 member states of the CICA are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Palestine, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

At the 47th UN General Assembly in 1992, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev first proposed the idea of establishing a regional forum aimed at increasing security and cooperation in Asia.

According to Kazakh officials, leaders from the 16 member states are expected to sign and adopt The Almaty Act and the CICA Declaration on Eliminating Terrorism and Promoting Dialogue Among Civilizations -- two documents designed to strengthen security and increasing mutual trust among the member nations, before winding up their one-day summit later in the day.

(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2002)