TEHRAN Majlis Speaker Hojjatoleslam Mahdi Karrubi said on Wednesday that the long-term interests of Iran and Russia require the two countries accelerate political, economic and parliamentary cooperation.

In a meeting with Vice-Speaker of Russian State Duma Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Karrubi said that Iran and Russia have longstanding amity and appreciated the close stance the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation have adopted on regional and international developments.

He said that Iran's Majlis and the Russian State Duma are the effective parliaments in policymaking of the two independent countries.

Karrubi pointed to the upcoming Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Cuba and called for exchange of views between Majlis and the State Duma on issues of mutual interests.

He said that Iran and Russia have close views about the Caspian Sea, Central Asia and the Caucasus as well as the Afghanistan problem and hoped that practical steps would be taken to help resolve the regional issues through further bilateral cooperation.

Zhirinovsky said that the two countries are inevitably expected to launch bilateral and multilateral cooperation to help resolve the current regional issues.

He said that Iran and Russia would carefully study the issues concerning the Caspian Sea, campaign against drug trafficking, ways to create jobs and fostering cooperation in the field of technological know-how and called for Majlis' support for mutual cooperation.

Zhirinovsky also met with the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Euro-American Affairs Ali Ahani yesterday.

Iran-Russia cooperation can play a "decisive" role in resolving the Caspian Sea legal status, Zhirinovsky told Ahani. Russia and Iran should use all their potentials to establish a durable peace in the region. He also called for boosting of regional and international cooperation between the two littoral states.

For his part, Ahani said that Iran would do its best to expand bilateral cooperation.

Also, Iran and Russia called Tuesday for resumption of barter trade, saying the goods exchanged between the two countries lack variety.

In a meeting with visiting Russian ultranationalist, Iran's Commerce Minister Mohammad Shariatmadari called for banking cooperation and establishment of relations between the exports guarantee fund in both countries to promote economic relations.

Noting that the Russian State Duma is the most significant decision-making body in Russia, Shariatmadari said that Duma can approve regulations which support expansion of Tehran-Moscow relations.

He termed as important establishment of north-south and east-west railway via Iran to link Europe with East Asia and said that Iran's Shipping Organization is ready to transport goods through Caspian Sea.

In the meantime, the Iranian Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari said, in a meeting with Zhirinovsky on Tuesday, that in drawing up the Caspian Sea legal status the interests of the five littoral states should be fairly taken into account.

Mousavi Lari said that Iran and Russia are expected to work for a settlement in the Caspian Sea guaranteeing the rights of the Caspian states.

He said that the Caspian states should enjoy equal rights in shipping, and exploitation of the Caspian Sea underwater resources.

Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are the five countries which have common borders with the Caspian Sea.

The Islamic Republic has repeatedly indicated that it will agree to an equitable sharing of the oil-rich Caspian Sea which would give it a share of 20 percent.

Russia has inked a bilateral agreement with Azerbaijan on how to divide the Caspian, which is still in dispute 10 years after the collapse of the former Soviet Union.

Iran and the USSR were the sea's only littoral states before the Soviet breakup, and Tehran has repeatedly signalled its insistence on the previous accords being honored and its displeasure over Moscow's moves to alter them.

Iran wants unanimity on a new status, modifying the current Soviet-Iranian accords.

The Caspian Sea is estimated to contain the world's third largest reserves of oil and gas after the Persian Gulf and Siberia.

Zhirinovsky arrived in Tehran Monday night and was received by First Vice-Speaker of Majlis Behzad Nabavi.

Earlier this month, a reliable Iranian Foreign Ministry source said: "For the time being only the 1921 and 1940 agreements (between Iran and the ex-Soviet Union) apply, and no other arrangement outside those agreements is acceptable."

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami is due to start a two-day official visit to Moscow on March 19. He and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are likely to reach an agreement on how to divide the oil-rich Caspian Sea among the five littoral states.