Iran leader calls Caspian states to overcome rifts

BAKU, Aug 22 (Reuters) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Caspian Sea states today to overcome their differences and use the oil and gas wealth from the world's largest saline lake in the interests of their citizens.

Local news agencies quoted Ahmadinejad, on a visit to Azerbaijan, as saying leaders of the five states bordering the sea, which also include Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, would meet in Tehran on October 16 after four years of wrangling.

''The participation of the leaders of the five states has already been confirmed,'' Ahmadinejad said, according to Interfax-Azerbaijan news agency.

''The potential of the Caspian Sea can open the way to further development of the regional states, if they use the chance fairly,'' he said. ''Unfortunately now, the Caspian wealth is not used rationally.'' Disagreements on how to draw borders in the Caspian Sea, in which Tehran opposes the four other states, have so far stood in the way of boosting oil and gas production.

Caspian oil and gas deposits are jealously watched by international energy players like Russia, the EU and China.

Russia is trying to revive its control over the export of the Caspian resources through its territory by reviving the Soviet-era network of pipelines.

The first Caspian summit was held in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat in 2002, but plans to hold a second meeting, originally due a year later, were disrupted by the dispute.

''I hope positions of the Caspian states will come closer at the Tehran summit,'' Ahmadinejad said.

Improving cooperation with its neighbours is important for Tehran at a time when it is under pressure from the European Union and the United States over its nuclear programme, which the West believes is aimed at obtaining an atomic bomb.

Ahmadinejad denies this but uses every opportunity to rally support in his stand-off with the West.

Last week, he told a regional summit attended by Russia, China and four ex-Soviet Central Asian states that Washington's plans to deploy elements of a U.S. anti-missile defence system in Central Europe threatened their security.

Washington says it plans to deploy interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech republic to avert possible attack from Iran and other hostile states.

In Baku, which has good relations with the West, Ahmadinejad took the same line.

''Certain forces do not want our friendship to develop,'' he said. ''But they are doomed. Peoples of Iran and Azerbaijan are brothers ... and their relations should serve as an example to others.'' REUTERS AK KP1728