TEHRAN -- Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said in Canberra on Monday that Australian companies are ready to invest in Iran's oil and gas sectors.

Downer told his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharrazi that it is necessary for both Iran and Australia to take up action to remove impediments to their trade.

He called for expansion of commercial and economic cooperation between Iran and Australia given their high economic potential.

Kharrazi for his part stressed all-out expansion of bilateral cooperation as well as activation of Iranian and Australian private sectors to implement joint venture projects.

He called for expansion of Tehran-Canberra cooperation in parliamentary, cultural, and tourism fields.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Kharrazi criticized the Qods occupying regime for its continued state terrorism and massacre of defenseless Palestinian people. He called for global pressures on Israel to halt attacks on Palestinians and put an end to the massacre of Palestinian women and children.

He said the crisis in the Middle East can only be settled through restoration of the Palestinian people's rights, withdrawal of the Qods occupying regime from occupied lands as well as repatriation of refugees.

The two sides also exchanged views on cooperation between Iran and Australia in the fields of economy, exchange of experience on drugs smuggling, immigrants and contribution to Afghanistan's reconstruction.

They also held talks on latest regional developments, especially those in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East.