MOSCOW - Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said on Wednesday a six-nation security pact of ex-Soviet states had become a key partner in the anti-terrorism coalition formed after September attacks on the United States.

Ivanov told foreign ministers from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan it was no accident their Collective Security Treaty "has become a recognised element of the international fight against terrorism".

The Russian official made his comments on the eve of a Moscow summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a weakly-structured 12-nation body grouping former Soviet republics, minus the three Baltic states.

Moscow has been at the forefront of the "war on terrorism" launched by U.S. President George W. Bush following the September 11 hijacked airliner attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon that left some 4,500 people dead and missing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted U.S. relief flights air corridors and smoothed the way for U.S. troops to be based in Central Asian republics, traditionally Russia's sphere of influence, despite hostility from his military.

Some 1,000 U.S. troops are in Uzbekistan, bordering Afghanistan where the main suspect in the attacks on the United States, Osama bin Laden, is believed to be in hiding.

Uzbekistan is not a member of the regional security pact, although Tajikistan and Kazakhstan have offered bases for use in the campaign against Afghanistan.

Ivanov said the regional security pact should intensify its international cooperation on organised crime, drug trafficking, the fight against terrorism and emerging threats.

"This fight requires an altogether new different level of cooperation than was the case before," Ivanov said, according to a transcript released by the Foreign Ministry.

The CIS was formed to help smooth relations between the new states that emerged from the rubble of the Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991.

Dominated by Russia, to the annoyance of many members, the CIS has failed to become a coherent body operating along the lines of the British Commonwealth. But it is credited with helping avoid a repeat of the violence that accompanied the bloody break up of the old Yugoslav federation.