Russia, China start most ambitious joint wargames

CHEBARKUL, Russia, Aug 17 (Reuters) Russian and Chinese military forces started wargames today, using a joint land and air assault on a mock town held by ''terrorists'' as a showcase for their military prowess.

Fighter jets swooped overhead, commandos jumped from helicopters onto rooftops and the boom of artillery shells shook the firing range in central Russia as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao looked on smiling.

The presidents, who control two of the largest armies in the world, were joined by leaders and military forces from the four other Central Asian members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional security and economic grouping.

After the exercises ended, Putin said: ''Today's exercises are another step towards strengthening the relations between our countries, a step towards strengthening international peace and security, and first and foremost, the security of our peoples.'' Hu also praised the exercises and said: ''I am convinced that the current exercise will definitely serve to stimulate the SCO to play a bigger role in the struggle against terrorism in the region.'' The SCO yesterday sent NATO a thinly coded warning at its summit, saying the world must let the region resolve its own security. The West has been jockeying with regional powers Russia and China for influence over the energy-rich area.

General Vladimir Moltenskoi, the Russian commander in charge of Friday's exercise, said the wargames involving 7,500 troops from the SCO members would help the grouping fight international and ''internal terrorists''.

FREEING TERRITORY ''The aim of the operation is the freeing of the territory controlled by the terrorists and the destruction of the illegal group of terrorists if they fail to surrender,'' Moltenskoi told the leaders.

Hu and Putin exchanged jokes as a line of tanks fired across the range to corner a group of ''terrorists'' holed up in a mock town, specially prepared on a sun-baked plain in Chebarkul in the Southern Ural mountains.

Explosions were soon so loud the ground at the grandstand housing the leaders rocked from repeated artillery fire.

General Xu Qiliang, the Chinese joint commander of the manoeuvre, told reporters the exercise illustrated closer relations between Moscow and Beijing. The historic rivals have been drawn closer by common interests including energy and opposition to US dominance of global affairs.

Echoing the terrorism theme, images from the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington and subsequent bombings in Madrid and London were shown on giant video screens near the leaders.

The area is close to Chelyabinsk, nicknamed ''Tankograd'' after Josef Stalin moved tank and other arms production there during World War Two to escape the invading Nazis.

Western military attaches attending the exercise clicked away eagerly with cameras but some human rights activists questioned the wargames' true intentions.

''The scale of the exercises suggests that they are aimed at controlling local populations and not just combating terrorism,'' said the Uighur American Association, a Washington-based NGO that supports the Muslim Uighur minority in China.

Russia has waged two wars against Muslim Chechen separatists since 1994, China says it has been combating Uighur Muslim rebels in its most westerly province and Uzbekistan says it has also fought Islamist extremists.

REUTERS ARB KN1757