TEHRAN, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon met with Iranian officials on Sunday and both sides vowed to broaden their cooperation and ties, the official IRNA news agency reported.

    Expansion of cooperation between Tehran and New Delhi could lead to upgrading their capacity for developing multilateral cooperation, Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Secretary Saeed Jalili said at his meeting with Menon.

    Jalili, who is also Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, said that historical ties and untapped potentials play significant role in long-term cooperation between Iran and India.

    Menon, for his part, underlined the importance of Tehran-New Delhi relations which would have impacts on regional developments, according to IRNA.

    Iran and India should increase the level of cooperation to help preserve stability and peace in the region, the Indian foreign secretary said, adding that India is to boost strategic ties with all countries in the region.

    Menon on Sunday also met with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki for talks on expansion of relations between the two countries, IRNA reported.

    According to Information and Public Relations Department of Iran's Foreign Ministry, the India official said at the meeting that India attaches great importance to expansion of ties with Tehran.

    Expressing dissatisfaction with current level of relations between the two countries, he called on the two sides to seize opportunities and take advantage of each other's capabilities and potential.

    Mottaki, for his part, said both Iran and India share common stands on mutual, regional and international issues, adding that Iran is an independent state which makes its own decision on how to establish or continue ties with others.

    "We should not let any foreign powers to harm existing ties between the two countries," the Iranian foreign minister said.

    Mottaki noted that the level of relations between the two countries, particularly in the past two years, is not satisfactory and should be further upgraded to serve the significant role of both countries in the region.

    He called on the two sides to take more concrete steps to revive the two countries' relations and properly take advantage of each other's capabilities.