South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki agreed Thursday to strengthen energy and economic cooperation, during the Iraqi leader's first trip to Seoul.
Lee urged Maliki to allow more South Korean companies to take part in exploring the world's third-largest oil reserves, Seoul's presidential office said in a statement.
He also offered to share Seoul's experience in developing an impoverished war-torn country in the 1950s into a major world economy.
Maliki urged South Korean firms to take part in reconstruction projects to build houses, roads, electricity networks and other energy resources.
The Iraqi leader had a list of projects in which he hoped to attract South Korean investment such as construction of 5,000 schools, hospitals and railways, Ali al-Mussawi, Maliki's media adviser, told AFP before the trip.
Trade between the two countries, which forged official diplomatic ties in 1989, was worth $5.6 billion last year, with Iraq mostly selling oil and South Korea exporting cars and mobile phones.
Under a deal signed during the visit South Korea has secured the right to be one of the first countries to receive at least 250,000 barrels a day of Iraqi crude oil in the event of an emergency, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said.
It said in a statement the agreement would significantly enhance energy security in the resource-poor nation.
The amount is equivalent to about 10 percent of South Korea's daily crude imports of 2.4 million barrels, it said.
— Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this report —
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