BAKU Iranian ambassador to Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan, here Tuesday underlined Iran's potentials in exploration and exploitation of oil and gas resources.

Speaking to IRNA on the sidelines of an international oil and gas exhibition and conference, Ahad Qazaei said two companies representing the Iranian Oil Ministry are attending the event.

He said the exhibition would offer important information on oil and gas exploration and exploitation, adding that Iran too would have enough to say in this connection.

On the closing day of the exhibition, June 8, ambassadors of the three Caspian Sea littoral states -- Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan -- would deliver speeches.

A conference held on the sidelines of the exhibition will discuss issues concerning means for exploitation of energy resources in the Caspian Sea and ways to develop mechanisms for transfer of energy.

Over 330 domestic companies as well as 25 foreign countries are present at the exhibition.

In his opening remarks on Tuesday, Azeri President Haydar Aliyev underlined the need for building a new pipeline for transfer of energy from the region to the world market and underscored Iran's role in this connection.

He said that preliminary steps taken in the region offer promising prospects for optimal exploitation of the available energy resources for the Azarbaijan Republic as well as other Caspian Sea littoral states.

The states have still to come up with a legal regime for the exploitation of the sea among themselves, particularly its rich oil reserves, said to be the largest after Siberia and the Persian Gulf.

Iran has repeatedly indicated that it will agree to an equitable sharing of the sea resources, which would give it a 20 percent share.

Iran believes that agreements reached between Tehran and Moscow in 1921 and 1940 are the most suitable precedents for deciding on a legal regime. The accords, it believes, will meet the interests of the five littoral states, foremost being the proportional sharing of the sea resources.

The coastal states of the sea have postponed several scheduled meetings on the legal regime of the Caspian Sea, the last scheduled for early March has again been postponed sine die.