ISLAMABAD, June 16: President Pervez Musharraf and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan on Monday discussed regional and international issues and the role of the Organization of Islamic Conference in resolving the issues facing the Muslim countries.

Both the leaders also discussed prospects to further expand trade ties between the two countries. Bilateral relations, regional situation as well as international issues of mutual interest also came under discussion, says an official announcement.

During the talks, President Musharraf and Prime Minister Erdogan discussed Pakistan-India relations, the Kashmir issue, the Cyprus question, Iraq, Afghanistan, the situation in the Middle East as well as the role of the OIC.

“The two sides had close identity of views on these issues,” the statement said.

Expressing satisfaction at the state of relations between the two countries, President Musharraf emphasized the need for expanding economic relations.

The Turkish prime minister informed the president that a 110-member business delegation had accompanied him to Islamabad along with Turkish ministers and senior officials to deal with economic issues.

He expressed the hope that their interaction with their Pakistani counterparts would go a long way in expanding economic interaction as well as trade between the two countries.

President Pervez Musharraf later hosted a lunch in honour of the Turkish prime minister.

Meanwhile, Turkish Minister for Foreign Trade Kursad Tuzmen and Federal Minister for Water and Power Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao held a meeting on Monday.

The meeting decided that Pakistan and Turkey would have joint ventures in water and power sectors as both the countries had strong expertise in these sectors. Both countries would work jointly for the reconstruction of Iraq, particularly in the power sector. Pakistan and Turkey could benefit from each other’s expertise and a memorandum of understanding to this effect would be signed.

Mr Sherpao informed Mr Tuzmen that internatio-nal tenders for the raising of Mangla Dam height and the 1,000mw Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project would be floa-ted soon and invited Turkey to participate.

Aftab Sherpao apprised the visiting delegation about the hydropower development programme - Vision 2025 — which aimed at creating additional storage facility for about 5.47 million acre feet of water by 2008.

Mr Tuzmen said that Turkish contractors were working on projects worth $55 billion outside Turkey. In Pakistan, Turkish contractors were mostly associated with power and construction sectors.

He informed Aftab Sherpao that energy rates in Turkey were comparatively higher than that of Pakistan because of higher costs of inputs. Situated at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Turkey could buy goods from Pakistan and export services, he added.

In another meeting, Turkish Minister Kursad Tuzmen and Federal Commerce Minister Hymayun Akhtar Khan discussed matters relating to promotion of trade and business between the two countries.

They agreed to find ways and means for the development of promotional activities at both the government and the private sector level.

Federal Commerce Secretary Kamal Afsar and Vice-Chairman of the Export Promotion Bureau Tariq Puri were also present on the occasion.

BANQUET: Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed Pakistan’s crackdown on Islamic extremist groups and its attempts at modernisation, adds AFP.