"The joint task force in Central Asia is aimed to become a restraining military and political factor in the region, taking an uneasy situation in Afghanistan into account," he was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying after the talks attended by CSTO envoys in Moscow.

The date of the force’s formation will be determined during high-level consultations of the CSTO, Bordyuzha said.

Deputy foreign, defense, finance ministers, as well as deputy security council secretaries from the CSTO member states met here Friday to discuss the coalition’s military development for the period up to 2010, the creation of unified military forces in Central Asia, and plans for joint military cooperation in 2009.

The CSTO, a post-Soviet security alliance, comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.