Paris, Sept 17, IRNA � A high-ranking 150-member French economic delegation plans to visit Iran next Sunday to explore avenues to promote trade ties with the Islamic Republic.
�
French Agriculture Minister St�phane Le Foll and Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Promotion of Tourism Matthias Fekl would lead the tanking delegation which gathers representatives from 150 French companies and large industries.

While in Tehran, the French delegation is to hold separate meetings with Iranian political and economic officials as well as members of its chamber of commerce. They are to discuss major issues in the fields of foreign trade, tourism, housing, industry, insurance, healthcare, transportation and banking arenas.

The French delegation is also slated to travel to the holy city of Mashhad in the northeastern province of Khorassan-Razavi next Wednesday and meet with local officials.

The growing visits to Iran by delegations from different European countries followed a historic development on July 14 in Vienna where Iran and members of the Group 5+1 - the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany - ended a long-term nuclear dispute over Iran's nuclear energy program.

The two sides announced they ended their marathon talks and agreed on certain restrictions over Iran's nuclear program in return to the removal of certain economic sanctions against Iran.

This triggered a wave of visits to Tehran by ranking business delegations. The first to arrive in Tehran was German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel who led a top-level business delegation on his July 19 visit to Tehran.

By IRNA