TEHRAN, Feb 25: Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai, on the second day of his first official visit to Iran, on Monday called for Tehran and Kabul to work together to create peace and stability in their troubled region.

“Today we come to our brother’s home,” Karzai said in an address to Iran’s parliament where he was greeted with warm applause.

“We and you are in need of peace and stability in the region. At the start of this new century we can silence the guns to create a focus of beauty, friendship and cooperation.”

Karzai also paid tribute to the “unforgettable support” of Iran, which has “behaved like the brother of the Afghan people” during 22 years of war in his country.

He said his country, which is “in ruins, had not known of rights or justice for years.

“But today we are in a country that behaved like the brother of Afghan people for more than two decades” of war. “I want to pay tribute for your unforgettable support, particularly in our resistance against the Soviet occupation,” Karzai said on his first visit to Iran since taking office in December.

The Afghan leader spoke of the “common culture” and “Islamic solidarity” binding the two countries.

Those references looked sure to please the Iranian leadership, which considers the two themes as pivotal when referring to its eastern neighbour.

“Our common culture reinforces our solidarity. We have common literary figures, which gives us our eternal culture”, said Karzai, quoting the 13th-century poet Saadi exalting “cooperation and harmony among parts of the human body.

“At the beginning of the new century, we can create a prosperous region, far from the deafening noises of tanks and weapons”, the Afghan leader said, loudly applauded by the parliamentarians.

“We succeeded in overcoming such difficult problems as obscurantism, terrorism and foreign occupation” and “the forces of international terrorism have disfigured Afghanistan and religion in the eyes of the world,” he added.

“Let us move towards the rule of law. Creation of the interim government is a prelude to re-establishing law and order in our country, to restore the national sovereignty and the independence of Afghanistan,” Karzai added.

“We must join hands to return this part of the world to prosperity and happiness,” he said.

He did not refer to US accusations that Tehran is trying to destabilize Afghanistan, which a senior Afghan leader, Herat Governor Ismail Khan, has said were the result of “rumours” put out by the Taliban.

Karzai has sought to reassure his Iranian hosts the US presence in Afghanistan is no threat to neighbouring nations.

“The United States helped us get rid of the Taliban,” Karzai told a news conference on Sunday. “But Afghanistan cannot be a country through which neighbouring countries can be harmed. Our brothers should be completely sure about that.”

Iran shares a 900km (560 mile) border with Afghanistan and extends considerable economic influence over the west of the country. Iran has pledged $560 million in aid to its neighbour — the biggest contribution by any one country.

“We extend the hand of friendship and cooperation to our friends who believe in Afghanistan’s sovereignty and political independence,” Karzai told the MPs. “Let us all stand together to create a better future in this region of the world.”— Agencies