TEHRAN Iran echoed Tuesday its previous assertion that it does not back the Turkish Kurd guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which Turkey claims are based on Iranian soil.

"Iran has never backed PKK and will never do so, but due to long borders between Iran and Turkey, they may try to infiltrate through border points," Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Ismail Cem here.

"Certainly, we will not allow them to infiltrate into Iran," Kharrazi stressed.

Cem, who arrived in Tehran for a two-day state visit, said that Turkey will never allow any terrorist group to do anything in defiance of its territorial integrity.

With the transfer of natural gas to Iran, Cem said, the volume of Tehran-Ankara trade exchanges would rise by 100 percent annually.

Tehran-Ankara relations have entered a new phase, because both sides have decided to raise the volume of their commercial exchanges to 1.8 billion dollars, as opposed to the current trade volume of one billion dollars," he said.

He added Iran and Turkey had signed an accord on economic, political and security matters, adding that both nations were determined to "overcome the obstacles."

Cem said he wanted Tehran to ease restrictions such as high taxes on Turkish businessmen in Iran in view of the fact that the balance of payments between the two would be further tipped in Iran's favor with the opening of a gas pipeline in July.

At the end of Cem's visit, Tehran and Ankara signed a cultural cooperation agreement to expand cultural exchanges.

Kharrazi said that Iran would start transfer of its gas to Turkey in June.

He said that no new security agreement had been signed between the two, but, he added, all security issues would be resolved.

In a new development, new gas supplies from Iran are to go on stream, as planned earlier this year, to help ease booming Turkish energy demand.

(IRNA)