Preparations for a joint anti-terrorist exercises of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states have been completed, Russian Deputy Defense Minister General Vladimir Isakov said on Tuesday.

The exercise, dubbed "Peace Mission 2007," will be carried out in Chelyabinsk in Russia’s Ural Mountains Chelyabinsk region and in Urumqi, capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Aug. 8-17.

All six SCO members -- China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- will take part in the drill.

About 6,500 troops and 80 aircraft were expected to be involved, including 2,000 troops and 36 aircraft from Russia, 1,700 troops and 46 aircraft from China, as well as airborne companies and officers from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Airfields, camps and meal stations for the Chinese troops, which has left China for Russia by train last Thursday, in Chelyabinsk had been readied, Itar-Tass quoted Isakov as saying.

The Chinese troops will travel a total distance of 10,300 km and it is the first time the People’s Liberation Army has sent so many soldiers and armaments to such a far away place.

The SCO members held an anti-terror joint military drill in 2003. In 2005, China and Russia conducted a joint military exercise, code-named " Peace Mission 2005."