TEHRAN Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Abdolrahim Govahi conferred with Vice President and Head of the Department of Environment Ma'soumeh Ebtekar on issues of mutual interests, announced the ECO Secretariat in a press release on Wednesday.

At the meeting, Govahi, pointed to the fact that so far no significant joint project has been taken up by the two organizations and asked for such cooperation. He emphasized the critical situation of the ecosystem in ECO region, especially Caspian Sea.

Govahi also referred to the suggestion of the 11th meeting of ECO regional planning council regarding holding a workshop on expansion of energy resources and its environmental consequences and asked for the assistance of the Department of Environment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in this regard.

Ebtekar while welcoming such cooperation referred to the ozone layer and CFC gas problem and suggested that a regional center for this purpose may well be established.

She also added that in this respect the assistance of UNEP might be sought. Ebtekar further stressed the great role of the

nongovernmental organizations in environmental issues and sought their views in this regard.

Ebtekar underlined the idea of a high-level regional meeting of ECO environmental authorities in order to explore areas of regional cooperation on environment.