June 27, 2006	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 30, 1427

MOSCOW, June 26: The head of Russian gas giant Gazprom, Alexei Miller, met here on Monday with Iranian deputy oil minister Hadi Nedjad-Hoisseinian to discuss possible oil and gas exploitation and transportation ventures, Gazprom said.

A Gazprom statement said they had reached agreement “on concrete measures to intensify work on promising prospects.” They focused specifically on “cooperation in the exploitation and development of oil and gas fields and the transportation, utilisation and sale of gas”.

Gazprom said: “The two sides decided to examine the possibility of creating a Russian-Iranian joint venture to carry out these projects.”—AFP