Reuters- Lufthansa is in talks with Iran Air over providing catering, maintenance and pilot training services as it seeks to take advantage of new business opportunities in the country, executives from the German carrier said on Wednesday.

"We are in very, very intense discussions, actually almost on a weekly basis," Lufthansa Group's regional director for Gulf, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Karsten Zang, said at an event in Dubai.

He said any agreement could take time though given the upcoming elections in Iran in May.

"We are talking with Iran Air because their new aircraft is coming. They need training, of course, and we have the experience in all of these fields but we can't give timelines," he added.

Lufthansa last year agreed a limited code share deal with Etihad and in February strengthened the cooperation with a catering deal and a tentative plan to look at cooperation on maintenance.

Lufthansa sales executive Heike Birlenbach said the two were discussing the next steps on the maintenance memorandum of understanding, though no timeline had been set.

(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Writing by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Michelle Martin)