Brussels-- The EU has agreed to enter into negotiations with Iran on a trade and cooperation agreement.

The negotiation on the agreement will be pursued in parallel with and linked to an agreement on political dialogue and cooperation on counter-terrorism, said an EU- presidency press release issued Tuesday night,IRNA reported.

The EU views the trade and cooperation agreement and the political dialogue and cooperation on counter-terrorism as an integrated package, it noted.

Four areas are of special importance to the EU: the EU calls on Iran to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, it encourages Iran to sign, ratify and fully implement relevant international instruments on non-proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), it expects Iran to implement fully UNSC resolution 1373 in the fight against terrorism and looks forward to further cooperation in this field.

"The EU encourages Iran to exercise its influence to prevent any action that hampers the chances of returning to a political process in the Middle East. The EU encourages Iran to join without reservation the international consensus on the necessary existence of two states-- Palestine and Israel."

During Tuesday's comprehensive dialogue meeting in Tehran the above issues were discussed at length. Among other issues discussed were the situation in the region, including the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bilateral cooperation in the areas of trade and investment, energy, drugs as well as immigrants and refugees were also discussed.

"the EU looks forward to enhancing its cooperation with Iran on all these matters and expects that a deepening of economic and commercial relations between the EU and Iran be matched by similar progress in all other aspects of the EU's relations with Iran, including the four areas of special importance to the EU mentioned above," said the press release.

Further negotiations on the trade and cooperation agreement are expected to commence in October 2002.

The EU and Iran agreed to organize an expert meeting between the two sides as soon as possible to conduct talks on initiating a formalized EU-Iran human rights dialogue.

There was agreement that it is important to establish a human rights dialogue and that there will be no preconditions attached to the dialogue.

It was also established that Iran has invited UN human rights thematic rapporteurs to visit Iran in the coming autumn.

State Secretary Friis Arne Petersen, representing the Danish EU presidency, headed the EU troika delegation.

The Iranian delegation was headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Ahani.