MINSK Russian President Vladimir Putin met the heads of 10 other former Soviet states Friday in efforts to end conflict in Karabakh and Islamic unrest in Central Asia as well as boost trade, AFP reported.

Putin launched the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit that groups 12 former Soviet republics but not the three Baltic states by holding bilateral talks with Ukraine's embattled President Leonid Kuchma. Turkemistan did not attend.

Addressing another regional hot-spot, Putin held closed talks with Moldovan communist leader Vladimir Voronin, who is trying to negotiate a Russian troop withdrawal from Moldova's separatist Transdniestr region.