REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, ANKARA -- Bilateral ties between Turkey and Iran have moved further since Hassan Rouhani was elected as the Iranian president, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, after the two sides endorsed 10 deals in several sectors including banking, transportation and energy.

The Iranian president, who was on a two-day official state visit to Turkey starting from Sunday, co-chaired on Monday the first meeting of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council, which aims to increase the bilateral trade volume to some 30 billion U.S. dollars by 2015.

The meetings were very fruitful, as two countries signed 10 agreements on banking, transportation, investment, energy and tourism, Erdogan said at a joint news conference with Rouhani. The Turkish prime minister noted that Turkey wants to implement a preferential trade agreement in this aim, as Turkish businessmen are enthusiastic to invest in Iran.

Ankara also demands a discount on the price of natural gas purchased from Iran, on which Erdogan said they would continue the talks. "We'd increase amount of gas imported from Iran if we can reach an agreement," he said.

For his part, Rouhani said Turkey and Iran agreed to further promote their bilateral relations in the field of natural gas and oil. Officials from both sides would also hold talks on the banking system to facilitate bilateral trade, he added.

Rouhani's trip is the first official state visit to Turkey by an Iranian president after former President Hashemi Rafsanjani's official visit in 1996. Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad only visited Istanbul twice -- one was a working visit in 2008, and the other his participation of an international conference in 2009.

Besides their close energy and trade ties, the two countries are politically at loggerheads on how to deal with the three-year- old Syrian crisis. Ankara backs the opposition forces, while Tehran is a staunch supporter of current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Such differences have strained their bilateral relations.

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