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Israeli President Shimon Peres met on Sunday in Baku with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (R).
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BAKU (AFP)---Israeli President Shimon Peres met Azerbaijan's president in Baku Sunday at the start of a landmark visit to the region that will also include Kazakhstan.
Peres met Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and other officials for talks on "bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues," Azerbaijani state news agency Azertaj reported.
The two leaders signed agreements aimed at boosting cooperation in culture, education, science and high-tech, the agency said.
The 85-year-old president is travelling with a delegation of more than 60 representatives of Israeli government ministries and private companies seeking to tighten trade and economic ties with the two Caspian Sea states.
"The president's visit is aimed at strengthening and expanding Israel's strategic, diplomatic and economic ties with the two Muslim states that sit on the crossroads between Russia, China and Iran," his office said in a statement.
His four-day trip marks the first state visit by an Israeli leader to the two predominantly Muslim countries.
Peres also plans to address hundreds of representatives from Muslim and Arab countries at an interfaith conference in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, his office said.
Israel and Azerbaijan already have close economic ties.
Trade turnover between the two countries came to 180 million dollars (128 million euros) in the first quarter of 2009, the Israeli ambassador to Baku, Arthur Lenk, told local media before the visit.
Azerbaijani media reported that Israel, which imports 20 percent of its oil from Azerbaijan, would be seeking to boost energy cooperation during the visit.
Baku will be looking to increase cooperation in various high-tech fields and in importing Israeli agricultural products, media reported.
Azerbaijan, which is locked in a long-standing conflict with neighbouring Armenia, may also be interested in buying more Israeli arms after several previous multimillion-dollar weapons deals.
Israel shares tight economic and military ties with Kazakhstan after Astana asked the Jewish state to help it modernise its military and produce weapons.
Peres's visit has reportedly raised concerns in Azerbaijan's neighbour Iran.
On Saturday police briefly detained 19 members of the pro-Iranian Azerbaijani Islamic Party for protesting against the visit outside the foreign ministry in Baku.
It also comes as four Azerbaijanis and two Lebanese are on trial in Baku facing charges of plotting to blow up the Israeli embassy in Baku last year.
Azerbaijani authorities allege the suspects were connected with Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah and the Al-Qaeda network.