Khatami meets with Saudi oil, trade ministers

Iranian President Muhammad Khatami met on Sunday at his residence at al-Deyafa palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with Saudi Minister of Oil Ali al-Nueimi. Following the meeting, al-Nueimi said, "The most important thing is that Saudi Arabia and Iran have had held unanimous stances concerning oil, as the two biggest oil producing countries in the Gulf," noting that such agreement would be conducive to stabilizing the market, and improving oil prices.

The Saudi oil minister added that the success of coordination between Saudi Arabia and Iran has been revealed in several meetings. The first was during the bilateral meeting which was held in Riyadh and then during the meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council and aftermath of the Holland meeting.

For his part, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar-Zanganeh, who attended the meeting, expressed total satisfaction over all held discussions.

In a statement following the meeting he said, "They were serious talks. We have discussed means of strengthening relations and Iranian - Saudi coordination to maintain stability in oil prices."

The Iranian minister added that the two countries will not sign a new agreement because their first agreement is still valid, "But what we do agree at the meantime is to maintain coordination for oil policies."

He added that Iran and Saudi Arabia did not agree to further coordination in the area of petrochemicals.