TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's official news agency IRNA says
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for a quick increase in
trade with China to $100 billion a year.

The news agency says current trade between the two countries is
worth about $30 billion.

Iran turned to China after the West imposed economic sanctions
over Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons program. Iran says it's
nuclear program has a strictly peaceful purpose.

Ahmadinejad spoke after a meeting Saturday with He Guoqiang, a
senior executive of the Chinese Communist Party. The Iranian
president says he hopes the new trade goal will be reached quickly,
but did not give a time frame.

IRNA says the two countries signed agreements worth $4 billion
in mining, energy and other areas.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)