MINSK, June 1 (AFP) -
Russian President Vladimir Putin met heads of 10 other former Soviet states Friday amid efforts to end conflict in Nagorno Karabakh and Islamic unrest in Central Asia as well as joint moves to boost trade.

Putin launched the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit that groups 12 former Soviet republics minus the three Baltic states by holding bilateral talks with Ukraine's embattled President Leonid Kuchma.

The isolationist Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov was the only no-show at the summit after gruffly noting that his cautious views on post-Soviet re-integration were "already well known."

Since his election last year, Putin has made repeated efforts to reassert Russia's authority over the former Soviet republics, something that his predecessor Boris Yeltsin had failed to do despite repeated attempts.

On Thursday, Putin unveiled a new economic free trade zone called the Eurasian Economic Community (EEC), which effectively upgrades an already existing customs union between Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Putin said the EEC would establish common policies on tariffs, taxes, employment and travel visas, with the aim of seeing all five states join the World Trade Organization

The new body, along with the so-called GUAM states -- Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova -- "will help Russian capital to enter more easily into neighboring markets, and will reinforce Russia's influence in the region," according to Azer Mursaliyev, political analyst with the daily Kommersant newspaper.

On Friday, the 11 leaders are set to address their attention to vexing security issues, including the threat of Islamic fundamentalism in the volatile Central Asian region.

Putin is also likely to tackle that issue during a summit that also includes the leaders of China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in Shanghai on June 15.

Directing his attention to the 13-year conflict in Nagorno Karabakh, Putin is also again expected to meet with Azeri President Heydar Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharian.

The two rivals had been expected to hold direct talks over the disputed Karabakh region in Geneva later this month but a June 15 meet was earlier scrapped after international mediators failed to resolve outstanding differences.

However, Aliyev suggested Thursday he might still be prepared to attend the mid-June talks on condition that meaningful progress was made during talks with Kocharian and Putin on the sidelines of the CIS summit.