Iran and Japan on Saturday voiced readiness to cooperate in Afghan reconstruction and Palestinian issue, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported.
Iran's Majlis (parliament) Speaker Mehdi Karrubi and visiting Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi expressed the views during their meeting on bilateral ties as well as international developments of common concern, especially the issues of Middle East, Afghanistan and terrorism.
Karrubi told Kawaguchi that Israel has been adopting racial policies and is committing crimes and genocide in Palestine, noting the international community must put pressure on Israel to end its atrocious actions in the occupied lands.
As for the Afghanistan issue, Karrubi said that Tehran would continue its support for the interim government headed by Hamed Karzai, stressing Iran is ready to expand cooperation with Japan in all areas.
For her part, Kawaguchi praised the role played by Iran in efforts to rebuild Afghanistan, while saying that Japan is very interested in cooperating with Iran to bring lasting peace to Afghanistan and help reconstruct the war-torn country.
The Japanese minister also stressed that efforts should continue to find out a solution to the crisis in Palestine.
The two sides also expressed pleasure with the pace of progress in the bilateral relations and pledged to expand the ties in all political, economic and cultural areas.
There are huge potentials in both countries, of which Iran and Japan could profit for further boosting the mutual ties, they noted.
Kawaguchi arrived here Friday for a three-day visit to Iran, the last leg of her four-nation Asian-European tour, which has already taken her to Britain, Belgium and Afghanistan.