Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, has welcomed "united" support from China and Central Asian allies for Moscow's actions in Georgia, saying it should send a "serious signal" to the West.

His statements on Thursday in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, came at the start of a summit of leaders of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO).

"I am sure that the united position of the SCO member states will have international resonance," he said.

"And I hope it will serve as a serious signal to those who try to turn black into white and justify this aggression," he said, referring to Georgia's attempt to reassert authority in the breakaway region of South Ossetia earlier in the month.

The Shanghai Co-operation Council, formed to counter the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), consists of Russia, China and four ex-Soviet Central Asian states: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

The agenda of Thursday's summit was dominated by developments in the current crisis in the Caucasus between Russia and Georgia and the repercussions of Russia's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which both broke away from Georgia in the mid-nineties, as independent states.
 
Russia's state news agency quoted the Tajik government newspaper as saying that there was also discussion of expanding the organisation to include Iran, India, Pakistan and others.

Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, were attending the talks as observers.