The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is capable of offering the world a new reserve currency, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said Wednesday.

Noting that defects in the global monetary and financial architecture have not yet been remedied, Nazarbayev speaking at a summit of SCO leaders, said that a healthy supranational currency is needed and should desirably be secured by gold.

"The SCO is capable of doing this," he said, "The swap operations that we have started is the first step. This is necessary for equal cooperation within the SCO."

The two-day SCO summit ended Wednesday with a communique pledging enhanced regional security, economic and cultural cooperation.

Founded on June 15, 2001, the SCO groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Observer countries include Mongolia, Pakistan, Iran and India while Belarus and Sri Lanka are dialogue partners.

The next SCO summit will be held in 2012 in China.