South Korea became the group's new member on Saturday, and India is a member - both countries backing their own candidates be the next UN chief.

The summit is the dream of Mr Zarbayev and aims at enabling Asian countries to become closer, solve problems and forge better understanding with their neighbours.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao said they seek a multilateral approach to the region's problems.

"It is important to have a multilateral approach in the region," Hu said in brief remarks. "China is not able to develop without Asia, so we once again outline the importance of peaceful and cooperative policy in the region."

Putin echoed his remarks, saying nations needed to work together on challenges such as terrorism, AIDS and bird flu.

"Our aim is to create a common and united space that will develop and deepen and strengthen each other's security," he said.

Thailand, which initiated the similar pan-Asia cooperation organisation, ACD, five years ago, wants to see Asia become stronger, Mr Thaksin said, although the CICA region might previously have differing priorities from those of Southeast Asia, or perhaps a different sense of what is Asia.

Kazakhstan airlines have been invited to launch flight services to Thailand when Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi International Airport opens later this year.

A land-locked country of some 15 million population, Kazakhstan's main borders are with Russia and China, as well as Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as two large inland seas, the Aral Sea, now split into two bodies of water, and the Caspian Sea.

Formerly part of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan, with a land area of 2,669,800 sqare kilometres. is about 5.2 times larger than Thailand, which totals 511,770 sqare kilometres.