Russian President Vladimir Putin says there are no obstacles left for Iran to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional security and economic cooperation body led by China and Russia.

"We believe that after Iran's nuclear problem was solved and United Nations sanctions lifted, there have been no obstacles left (for Iran's membership in the SCO)," Putin told an SCO summit in the Uzbek capital Tashkent on Friday.

Earlier, reports from the summit said SCO members had failed to initiate the accession process for Iran which expected to make it into the emerging power group after the lifting of sanctions.

“We failed to reach an agreement with our colleagues this time, but the work continues,” Special Russian Envoy to the SCO Bakhtiyor Khakimov said.

He said there were no objections to the idea of Iran’s full membership “in principle,” but there were “technical nuances” related to the timing which he did not elaborate.

“The Russian position is clear in its support of initiating the SCO admission process [for Iran] without delays, if possible,” Khakimov said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Tashkent early Friday to attend the summit. The country, which has an observer status on the SCO, had sent President Hassan Rouhani to the forum held in the Russian city of Ufa last year.