From left, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev, Armenian President Robert Kocharian, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev, CIS Executive Secretary Vladimir Rushailo, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and Uzbek President Islam Karimov pose at CIS summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004. A summit of leaders of CIS countries was held in Astana on Thursday. The CIS, Commonwealth of Independent States, is a loose alliance of 12 former Soviet republics. Russia's president and leaders of several other ex-Soviet countries on Thursday declared their intention to jointly combat terrorism, but clashed over lingering regional disputes. Photo by Valery Solovyov / Press Service of President of Ukraine / UNIAN From left, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev, Armenian President Robert Kocharian, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev, CIS Executive Secretary Vladimir Rushailo, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and Uzbek President Islam Karimov pose at CIS summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004. A summit of leaders of CIS countries was held in Astana on Thursday. The CIS, Commonwealth of Independent States, is a loose alliance of 12 former Soviet republics. Russia's president and leaders of several other ex-Soviet countries on Thursday declared their intention to jointly combat terrorism, but clashed over lingering regional disputes. Photo by Valery Solovyov / Press Service of President of Ukraine / UNIAN