Iran, North Korea seek to boost cooperation

TEHRAN, May 11 (Reuters) Iran and North Korea have agreed to step up bilateral contacts, an Iranian news agency said today, signalling closer ties between two countries which were part of US President George W Bush's ''axis of evil''.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki signed the agreement with visiting North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong-il yesterday evening, the student news agency ISNA said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government ''is interested in expanding ties with North Korea in the political, economical and cultural fields,'' Mottaki was quoted as saying.

''Therefore it is necessary to remove some barriers to provide and recognise new fields of cooperation,'' he said, suggesting North Korea's debt to Iran was one such barrier without giving details.

Under yesterday' accord, the foreign ministries of the two countries would every year send delegations to each other to ''exchange ideas'' over different international issues.

Bush branded the two countries as well as Iraq as part of an ''axis of evil'' after he took office in 2001.

Since then, Iran has defied Western pressure to suspend its nuclear programme, which the West fears is aimed at making atom bombs, a charge Tehran denies.

North Korea drew international condemnation when it conducted its first nuclear test in October, but agreed in February this year to shut its nuclear facilities in return for energy aid.

Reuters SYU GC1642