TEHRAN Finance Minister Hossein Namazi in a meeting with Chinese Labor Minister Zhang Zouji here Wednesday said Iran considers Sino-Iranian technical and engineering cooperation as 'necessary' in launching joint venture projects in a third country.

Namazi said Iran and China had to promote cooperation in customs affairs and underlined the implementation of earlier agreements reached by Iran-China Joint Economic Commission.

He voiced Iran's readiness to benefit from technological progress made by China.

Zhang, for his part, highlighted the need to expand bilateral economic and trade ties, and voiced China's readiness to hold the 11th meeting of Iran-China Joint Economic Commission.

The ministers stressed the need for an agreement to avoid double taxation by customs departments of the two countries. They agreed to form a customs experts team to draw up a draft for the agreement.