Speaking at a joint press conference on Monday before Mr. Aliyev’s departure for Baku, President Mohammad Khatami and his Azeri guest said they had reached a "broad understanding" on formulating the legal regime of the Caspian Sea, without offering journalists present any details but voicing optimism over the results of the upcoming expert-level meeting to debate the regime, slated for June 11, the official news agency IRNA said.

Aliyev too did not provide any details when he said that Iranian and Azeri experts had made major breakthroughs in their talks regarding the legal regime of the Caspian Sea.

Khatami, according to IRNA, described Aliyev's visit as a "turning point in mutual relations", and reiterated that he had had fruitful talks with his Azeri counterpart, again, without saying what kind of turning point the two had achieved and in which field.

The embattled Iranian President said Iran and Azerbaijan agree that the Caspian must be a sea of peace and stability, and that all littoral states must have a share in exploiting its resources on a fair basis.

Powerless Khatami said Caspian littoral states had a right to consider national interests in dividing the Sea resources, and reiterated that Iran had reached a point to define its national interests without conflicting the interests of others.

But analysts said they are confused by the remarks, as it is a matter of fact that Iran insist on the equal sharing of the Caspian surface and bed waters among the five littoral states, while others have already divided their mutual borders on internationally agreed principles.

A correspondent for the British news service "Reuters" in Tehran quoted Khatami as having said that Iran has "rights" in the Sea and is "determined to defend those rights"

"But at the same time we have respect for the rights of other coastal countries" Khatami told Reuters after a farewell ceremony for visiting Azeri President Haydar Aliyev.

"The policy of detente and confidence building would be seriously followed in the Caspian sea in relations with the littoral states and it is expected that continued exchange of views would give way to further convergence and regional cooperation", Hamid Reza Asefi, Iran’s Foreign Affairs Ministry’s senior spokesman told newsmen.

Both presidents observed that their fates are inter-related and that "each country's security guaranteed the stability of the other".

Mr. Khatami also said Tehran had a role to play is solving the Karabakh dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and called for the negotiated settlement of the conflict.

To counter the Tel-Aviv-Ankara-Baku axis, Tehran has developed close relationship with Armenia and Greece.

He said he had discussed issues of mutual interest with Iranian officials, and reiterated that the positions of Iranian officials on the topics had been "positive, amicable" and aimed at developing relations.

In his view, as reported by IRNA, the agreement to draw up the fundamentals of friendly ties between Tehran and Baku, as the first major legal contract between the two countries, had been the most important result of the visit.

"The Azeri president said his visit had opened a new chapter in mutual relations with the Iran, and stressed that the relations were bound to be upgraded in future", IRNA further reported from the joint press conference.

During the visit, the two sides signed ten letters of understanding on bilateral economic, political, scientific, cultural and sports cooperation between the two sides. ENDS IRAN AZARBAIJAN ALIYEV VISIT 20502