President Hu Jintao left Beijing on Wednesday morning for a five-day visit to Central Asian nations and the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.

At the invitation of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, Hu will pay a state visit to Uzbekistan and attend the annual SCO summit in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent, from June 9 to 11. As a guest of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, he will also visit Kazakhstan, June 11 to 12.

The SCO summit will discuss regional and global problems, issues of strengthening stability and security in Central Asia, and expansion of SCO contacts with multilateral organizations. Besides issues related to the Afghan situation, stability in Kyrgyzstan will be another hot issue at the summit.

It is also expected to approve a regulation allowing more countries to join the organization. In addition to heads of the SCO member states, representatives from observer countries, the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Eurasian Economic Community and the Collective Security Treaty Organization will also attend the meeting, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.