Chinese President Hu Jintao left Beijing on Wednesday for the 10th annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) scheduled for June 10-11 in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent.

Hu will also pay state visits to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan as guest of Uzbek President Islam Karimov and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev respectively.

Established in 2001, the regional body SCO now groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.