The Iranian and Turkish officials called for a boost in bilateral economic ties on Wednesday, raising the target of boosting trade transaction to 30 billion US dollars by 2015, Iran's First Vice President Es'haq Jahangiri said on Wednesday.

Jahangiri pointed to the preferential trade agreement, signed here between Iran and Turkey on Wednesday, saying that the agreement is "an important move which will help the economic cooperation of the two countries enhance."

Iran and Turkey had "good and constructive talks on the exports of Iran's natural gas to Turkey. We hope it could be finalized," the Iranian vice president said in a meeting with the visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He expressed hope that Erdogan's visit to Tehran will be a " turning point in the relations between Tehran and Ankara."

For his part, Turkish prime minister called Iran and Turkey's relations "very good and balanced," saying that "the political will of the authorities of both countries is to increase the mutual trade value to 30 billion dollars by 2015."

Turkey's growing industry is in need of Iran's energy and Ankara eyes Iran's market for its products, he said.

Erdogan arrived in Iran's capital of Tehran Tuesday night for an official visit and talks on bilateral ties and regional issues. The visit comes after a recent interim nuclear deal between the world powers and Iran, which paved way for partial removal of western economic sanctions against the Islamic republic.

Global Times