ROME, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zafir in Rome on Wednesday.
Photos of the two officials together were published on the government's website, but the contents of the talks had not been made public as of this writing.
The Iranian minister was also scheduled to meet with his Italian counterpart, Angelino Alfano, and with Lower House Speaker Laura Boldrini.
"Cybersecurity and combating hate are at the center of anti-terrorism policies. We discussed them with Iran FM M. Javad Zarif," Boldrini tweeted.
Zafir's visit comes two days after Italian oil and gas giant ENI signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).
The deal concerns further development of Iran's Darquain oil field and its Kish offshore gas field located in the Persian Gulf, the Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The Darquain field contains an estimated 5 billion barrels of oil, one-fifth of which can be extracted, the Italian Foreign Ministry said. It currently produces about 160,000 barrels a day and the ENI project is expected to increase daily production capacity by 50,000 barrels, according to the ministry's statement.
The Kish gas field contains an estimated 1.3 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, with potential for extraction of over 500 million barrels a day, the ministry said.
