Iran says a delegation from European aviation giant Airbus is in the countrys capital Tehran for talks aimed at finalizing a deal to sell around 100 planes to the Islamic Republic.
"An Airbus delegation has arrived in Tehran," Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, thetop deputy to Irans minister of roads and urban development, told AFP.
"We have started negotiations and if there are no problems, we will sign the agreement within a week for the purchase of around 100 planes," he added.
The announcement came after Iran finalized a much-awaited agreement with US aviation giant Boeing to purchase 80 planes on Sunday.
Farhad Parvaresh, the managing director of Iran Air that signed the agreement with Boeing, told the domestic media that the purchase involved 50 twinjet narrow-body Boeing 737 planes and 30 long-range wide-body 777 aircraft at a total cost of $16.6 billion.
Parvaresh said the planes would to be handed over to Iran within 10 years, adding that the first deliveries are expected in 2018.
The deal with Boeing was the first major commercial agreement between Iran and the US in decades.
Iran had signed basic agreements with Boeing and Airbus to purchase planes earlier this year.
The deal with Airbus has already received the go-ahead from the US Treasury Department.
The Department's seal for Iran-Airbus agreement was necessary given that at least 10 percent of Airbus' components are made in the US which has imposed a series of economic sanctions against Iran for years now.
The US Treasury Department had also given the green light to Boeing to sell planes to Iran.
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