27/08/2004 (Agence Europe) - Reforming the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, formerly the CSCE, Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe) will be one of the focal points of the summit at the end of August at the Russian President's residence by Vladimir Putin, Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroder. In the run-up to the meeting, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavror is reported by RIA Novosti as being in the process of preparing an invitation to interested OSCE countries to make 'constructive changes' to make the organisation more effective. Alongside Russia, the 'interested countries' are the countries of the former USSR (Ukraine, Byelorussia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgrzstan and Turkmenistan) which, with the exception of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Moldova, adopted a statement on 3 August 2004 criticising the OSCE's inability to adapt to changes in the world and achieve effective settlement of security and cooperation problems in the Euro-Atlantic area. Since the Helsinki Final Act of June 1975, Moscow has been at pains to boost the role of the CSCE (and later the OSCE) in an attempt to make it the main European security organisation, in competition with the Atlantic Alliance.