BEIJING - The Regional Anti-Terror Agency Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held its 19th conference in Beijing on Wednesday, pledging to give top priority to preventing terrorism, separatism and extremism in SCO member states.

At the meeting, representatives from SCO member states studied the internal construction of the council and discussed methods for promoting cooperation within the SCO, as well as new way to carry out exchanges with non-member countries. The representatives also surveyed the implementation of the council's resolutions and approved a work plan for next year.

Meng Hongwei, China's vice minister of public security and chairman of the council, hailed the positive achievements made by the council over the past year.

SCO member states held an anti-terror exercise in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in May, and conducted a series of activities designed to ensure the safety of June's SCO Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, August's Summer Universiade in Shenzhen and the China-Eurasia Expo held in Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi earlier this month, according to Meng.

The representatives agreed to share expertise, carry out training programs and make more efforts to maintain stability in SCO member states. They also agreed, at the request of Russia, to assist the country after it starts chairing the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in 2012.

Representatives from the Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and China attended the meeting.