TEHRAN First Vice President Hassan Habibi here on Sunday stressed on key role being played by the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in development of regional and international economy.

He made the remark in a meeting with heads of customs departments of the ECO member states currently here to attend the two-day seminar on "Customs Transit Management in the ECO Region".

Habibi expressed hope that the seminar would achieve practical and effective results through cooperation and coordination of the member countries, IRNA reported.

He further referred to large population, raw materials, energy and vast market as great potentials of the ECO members for development of the global economy.

The Iranian vice president called for cooperation between ECO and other international economic organizations including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), D-8, and the Group of 15 countries.

He also underlined the need for establishment of link between ECO and the regional and international economic organizations in the areas of supplementary industries, dissemination of information, and environment protection.

He urged all ECO members to have active participation in international economy and trade.

As to large damage inflicted by smuggle of narcotic drugs throughout the globe, Habibi called for cooperation among the ECO countries for campaign against smuggle of goods, traffic of drugs in particular.

Commenting on expanding growth in global trade, he called for mechanization and innovation of customs rules and the custom departments of the ECO member states.

Prior to Habibi's speech, Head of Iran's Customs Department Mahdi Karbasian briefed the audience on objectives of the Tehran seminar.

The seminar in which representatives of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Customs Organization (WCO), Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan, are present is to end on Monday.

Different ways to facilitate transit of goods among the member countries, unification of customs rules and regulations for transit of goods, and implementation of international customs conventions are discussed by the participant countries in the seminar.