India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Russian and Chinese counterparts Sergey Lavrov and Li Zhaoxing told reporters here on Thursday at the end of their three-hour talks that confrontation should be avoided to solve disputes on issues concerning the international community.

"They agreed that cooperation rather than confrontation should govern approaches to regional and global affairs", a joint statement issued after the talks said.

The three ministers called for strengthening the United Nations to promote the "democratisation of international relations" to build a multi-polar world.

This was the second time that the foreign ministers of the two Asian powers and Russia met in the last two years. They had met in Vladivostok, Russia, in June 2005. Besides, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao held a first trilateral summit meeting in St Petersburg in Russia in July last year.

"India, Russia and China, as countries with growing international influence, can make substantive positive contribution to global peace, security and stability", Mukherjee said.

Lavrov said cooperation rather than confrontation should govern approaches to regional and global affairs.

All the three countries agreed that international terrorism should be tackled "under central and coordinated role of the UN", the statement said.

The idea of trilateral relationship between India, Russia and China was first mooted by former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov during a visit to India in 1998.

However, all the three countries have denied that they are ganging up against the United States' dominant rule in international affairs.