“Turkey would continue relations with Israel on an equitable basis despite the growing diplomatic tensions between the two countries, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said during the second day of his official visit to Iran, reported the Turkish Hürriyet newspaper.

”Referring to his public row with Israeli President Shimon Peres over the deadly Gaza offensive at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Turkish Premier said that his reaction was not planned beforehand and added that it was spontaneous," the source reported. “It would be wrong to assume that my reaction in Davos was a stance against the West,” Erdoğan said. “One side of Turkey's face is turned to the West while the other is to the East,” he added.

“Asked if he made his visit to Iran as part of a mediator role between Iranian officials and the United States over Iran's nuclear program, Erdoğan said the major goal of his visit was to boost trade volume between the two neighbors,” the newspaper writes.

“We have set a goal of increasing trade volume to $20 billion by the year 2011. [Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza] Rahimi has revised it to $30 billion and we said ‘why not,’” Erdoğan said.

Yesterday, Turkey and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in gas industry.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said Turkey would invest more than $4 billion in Iran’s South Pars natural gas field. Turkey will conduct exploration in South Pars. More than 35 billion cubic meters of gas are expected to be extracted from the field, half of which will be used in Turkey, with the rest tol be sent to other markets via Turkey, Yıldız said.