SHANGHAI - A Central Asian summit on regional cooperation opens on Thursday in China, but threatens to be overshadowed by the presence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his nuclear ambitions.
Leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's six members -- China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- will discuss energy, economics and terrorism threats, while Iran attends as an observer along with India, Pakistan and Mongolia.
Chinese television showed the Iranian leader warmly chatting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, while the SCO leaders watched a fireworks display from a river boat sailing past Shanghai's neon nightscape.
But the world is waiting while Ahmadinejad considers a package of incentives and penalties offered by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, aimed at persuading it to abandon uranium enrichment.
If Iran rejects the package, the Western powers may push for U.N.-backed sanctions, a step China and Russia have resisted.
Hu is to meet Ahmadinejad on Friday, and Russian President Vladimir Putin may also meet the Iranian leader while in Shanghai.
Iran Stalling on Nuclear Offer
China on Wednesday urged a positive response to the nuclear offer, but chided reporters for giving so much attention to Iran. "The attention of all of you might be too much focused on the Iran nuclear issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters.
Some in the United States and Europe are starting to worry as much about the timing of Iran's reply as its content.
In Washington, a Western diplomat said the main concern was that Iran would string out a response until an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in September.
During this time they could edge closer to mastering the ability to enrich nuclear fuel, a step Western powers have said would bring Tehran closer to being able to make atomic weapons.
"You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube after it's out," said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"It looks like we will not even get an answer by the July G8 summit and then we will enter the doldrums of summer before the IAEA September meeting," he said.
Shanghai is plastered with welcome signs but forbidding cordons of police emptied the streets of ordinary residents ahead of the Thursday summit.
Hu Jintao and all the member states' leaders will address a full session of the group, and the Commerce Ministry is holding a conference aimed at boosting annual trade between China and the five nations, which reached $37.7 billion last year.
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