Chinese President Hu Jintao is to attend the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit on a visit to Tajikistan next week, Press TV reported.

"Hu Jintao will pay his first state visit to Tajikistan at the invitation of his Tajik counterpart Emamali Rakhmon" on August 26, a senior official Foreign Ministry official said on Wednesday.

During the visit Hu will ''sign cooperation deals on politics, economy and trade'' and will attend the SCO summit in Dushanbe on August 28, he added.

The Chinese President will then pay his first visit in 13 years to Turkmenistan to discuss a package of deals with his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.

China-Tajikistan ties have kept a good momentum in recent years and Beijing ties with Turkmenistan have also progressed rapidly, the ministry official said.

Founded in 2001, the SCO groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, while Iran, Pakistan, India and Mongolia hold observer status.