BEIJING - Law and justice ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member countries pledged to improve judicial cooperation in a joint statement issued here Friday.

The statement was signed at a meeting of law and justice ministers of SCO members that was held here on Thursday and Friday. It was the first such coming-together..

According to the document, law and justice ministers of SCO members will meet regularly and judicial departments will improve cooperation through roundtable meetings, exchanges of visits and joint training programs.

High-level officials in judicial departments of SCO members will improve exchanges in a bid to seek common understanding on problems of shared concern, the statement said.

SCO member states will push forward cooperation in aspects of judicial assistance, forensic expertise, implementation of court verdicts and processing judicial documents, it added.

"At this meeting, judicial departments of SCO member states established a cooperation mechanism that is a new platform to exchange visits, share information and handle judicial cases," said Wu Aiying, Chinese minister of justice, at the meeting's closing ceremony.

The success of this meeting and agreement on regular meetings in the future will open a new chapter for judicial cooperation among SCO members, Wu said.

The SCO is an inter-governmental organization founded in Shanghai on June 15, 2001, by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Its member states cover a total area of more than 30 million square km with a combined population of 1.46 billion.