The Caspian Sea countries have backed the idea of establishing a task force for fighting terrorism in the region, a senior officer in the Russian Navy said Thursday. \"The idea is to create a task group of the littoral states\' ships, similar to the Black Sea Force group, to fight terrorism, drug trafficking, and bio-terrorism,\" said Vice-Admiral Yury Startsev, who commands the Russian Caspian Flotilla. An international conference devoted to security in the Caspian is taking place in the Astrakhan region, in Russia\'s Volga area. The parties attending are exchanging opinions at an informal meeting on the Tatarstan missile ship, the Caspian Flotilla\'s flagship. The fight against terrorism is the central issue on the conference agenda, Startsev said. \"This problem requires joint efforts by all Caspian states [Kazakhstan, Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iran],\" the admiral said. \"Therefore, it is extremely important to promote cooperation on the Caspian, as it will allow [us] to respond promptly to emerging threats.\" (RIA Novosti)