New Delhi, Nov 16 (IANS) Iran Monday renewed its invitation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit Tehran as the two sides decided to expand their cooperation in combating terror emanating from Pakistan and give a push to the tri-nation gas pipeline.
External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna held delegation-level talks with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki on a range of bilateral and regional issues, including energy security, trade, Iran’s nuclear ambitions and enhanced collaboration in science and technology.

Mottaki, who began his two-day visit Monday, called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and reiterated President Mahmoud Ahmadinjead’s invitation to the Indian leader to visit Tehran. Dates will be worked out through diplomatic channels, official sources said.

This is the first high-level engagement between the two countries since the re-election of the Manmohan Singh government and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The discussions saw the two sides converging on tackling terrorism emanating from Pakistan and the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. They also took the opportunity for detailed exchange of views on important regional and international issues, including the threat of terrorism confronting the two countries, the external affairs ministry said.

The two countries decided to expand their counter-terror cooperation through intelligence-sharing and coordination between their intelligence agencies, the sources said.

A horrific suicide attack in southeast Iran in October that targeted the country’s Revolutionary Guards was blamed on Pakistan-based Jundallah, a Sunni extremist outfit which claimed responsibility. It was the first time terror outfits in Pakistan targeted Iranian territory - a development that has led Tehran to deepen counter-terror cooperation with New Delhi.

Working together to ensure the stability of Afghanistan saw an articulation of similar concerns and positions by both sides, which are opposed to the Taliban and had backed the Northern Alliance in the run-up to the ouster of the then Taliban regime in 2001.

The Indian side underlined its interest in speedily tying up arrangements for developing the Chabahar port in south Iran and an integrated railway line to Bam that would provide a direct trade route to Afghanistan and Central Asia. They discussed various projects, including in the fields of oil and gas, power, surface transport and infrastructure projects like the Chabahar Port and the International North-South Corridor, the external affairs ministry said.

The $7.5 billion tri-nation gas pipeline that seeks to bring Iranian gas to the Indian border through Pakistan also figured in the discussions.

The Iranian side pressed for accelerating negotiations to resolve and address Indian concerns about the pricing of Iranian gas and the security of the pipeline, which is expected to pass through violence-prone areas of Pakistan. A joint working group will meet in New Delhi to resolve these issues.

In a clear signal that India wishes to expand its ties with Iran despite its international isolation over the nuclear issue, New Delhi decided to accelerate negotiations over a host of agreements aimed at bilateral investment protection, avoidance of double taxation and a preferential trade agreement.

Crude oil imports from Tehran form over 80 percent of the $13 billion bilateral trade. New Delhi wants to diversify the trade basket by expanding exports aimed at Iran’s predominantly young population.

To boost cultural contacts, it was decided that an Indian Cultural Centre would be set up in Tehran and an Indian cultural week would be held in Tehran and Shiraz in 2010.