VIENNA -- Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda in Prague on Friday stressed the need to expand bilateral political and economic cooperation between Iran and the Czech Republic, IRNA reported.

In a meeting with Iran's newly appointed charge d'affaires to the Czech Republic Hossein Rezvani, Svoboda said that his country stresses respect and observance of principles of the religious democracy in Iran.

He added that the Czech Foreign Ministry will do its utmost to make use of capabilities of the two sides and remove obstacles currently facing mutual relations and cooperation between Tehran and Prague.

Rezvani, for his part, stressed Iran's foreign policy of promotion of cooperation with European countries, bilateral relations in line with the accepted principles and mutual respect as well as non-interference in internal affairs of each other.

The Iranian official said that the two countries are determined to strengthen bilateral ties.

He termed economic ties between the two sides and volume of bilateral trade in recent years as "very meager" given the great potentials of Iran and the Czech Republic.

Rezvani expressed hope that the old-rooted ties between the two sides would receive a great boost in the near future.