TEHRAN (ISNA)-Iran's Special Representative for Caspian Sea Affairs Mehdi Safari said littoral states of the sea have agreed on over 70 percent of the convention text to finalize Caspian Sea legal regime.

Safari took part in the 26th working group meeting to finalize Caspian Sea legal regime. The session was held on November 4-5 in Turkmenistan.

Safari said coastal countries tried to consider both their national interests and regional cooperation during talks.

"The countries are trying to make their views closer to each other as much as possible and they have made good progress so far."

He continued, "the Iranian delegation will never scarifice national interests and preciseness for speed in agreement."

There are still other important issues which have remained to be discussed including certain technical definition of Caspian Sea regions, legal regimes of these regions, ways for determining limits of the seabed to employ under-bed resources, the situation of military presence in the sea and ways for transit through Russian channels.

Reaching agreement on these issues is not so simple, he added.

... Payvand News - 11/08/09 ... --