Iran and Ghana sign seven memorandums of understanding in various fields including oil, agriculture, health, shipping and broadcasting.

The documents were signed in the Iran's Ministry of Agriculture Jihad in a ceremony attended by the Iranian Minister of Agriculture Jihad Mohammad-Reza Eskandari and Ghana's Foreign Minister Akwasi Asei-Adjei.

Iran's Ministry of Agriculture Jihad heads joint economic cooperation commissions of Iran's with seven African nations of Ghana, Sudan, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, Sierra Leon and Ethiopia, Eskandari told reporters.

As part of the agreement between the two countries, Iranian experts and university graduates will be dispatched to Ghana to share their technical and engineering know-how with the African nation, the minister was quoted by Fars News Agency as saying.

Bolstering cooperation with the African nations, especially the Islamic countries, is one of Iran's foreign policy priorities, Eskandari underlined.

Eskandari said the agreement signed between Petropars Iran (PPI) and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) indicates that the private sectors of the two countries are ready to cooperate in trade and investment.

Asei-Adjei, for his part, said Ghana is an independent country and pursuing its own interests, stressing that the sanctions imposed on Iran for its nuclear activities will have no effect on expansion of relations with the Islamic Republic.

He invited Iran's minister of agriculture jihad to participate in the fourth joint economic commission of the two countries that will be held in 2010 in Akra.

MMM/PA