Iran and Italy signed a number of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) for cooperation in areas of energy, transportation and trade expos.

The documents were signed on Tuesday during the second Iran-Italy forum held in Tehran, Press TV reported.

Business officials from the two sides signed MOUs in areas of oil and natural gas, railway transportation and after-sale services.

The gathering comes after the recent visit by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani to Italy, where the two countries signed multi-billion dollar contracts, worth up to 17 billion euros (USD 18.4 billion), covering various sectors including health, transportation, agriculture and energy.

President Rouhani said in Rome that Iran welcomes foreign investment and seeks to expand economic ties with Italy.

It was reported that a pipeline contract worth between 3.6-4.6 billion euros for Italian oil services group Saipem was among the January 25 deals.

Moreover, Italian steel firm Danieli said it would sign commercial agreements worth up to 5.7 billion euros with Iran.

Infrastructure firm Condotte d'Acqua was also scheduled to sign deals worth up to four billion euros.

The Italian delegation, comprised of 310 people from 197 companies arrived in Iran on Monday.

Italy is interested to be one of the main trade partners of the Islamic Republic, said the Italian Ambassador to Tehran.

"Iran and Italy maintain very good relations and this encourages Rome to seek to become as Tehran's main trade partner," said Mauro Conciatori on Tuesday.

Italy's ambassador also said that Iran has great potentials in the production sector and the Italian entrepreneurs could use the potential to expand cooperation with Tehran.

“Italy wants to become a regional economic hub with Iran playing the central role,” he said.

Accordingly, the ambassador said, we have plans to develop infrastructures and promote production in Iran especially in strategic spheres such as petroleum and natural gas.