TEHRAN (AFP) – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday held talks in Tehran with Iranian leaders on bolstering relations between the two neighbors and easing tensions in the crisis-torn Middle East. Erdogan vowed to ratchet up bilateral trade in talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Vice President Parviz Davoudi. “The main aim of this trip is to study the rapid international development, especially the sensitive situation in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, and the responsibility that both nations feel in finding a solution,” state television quoted Erdogan as saying. But he also said that Iran and Turkey were soon looking to up trade to some 10 billion dollars per year.

BELGRADE (AP) – Serbia’s foreign minister called for a compromise solution over the breakaway province of Kosovo, saying in comments published Saturday that this would be the only way to reconcile the opposing positions of Serbs and ethnic Albanians. In an interview to Belgrade-based Beta news agency, Vuk Draskovic said any solution should be a compromise between respecting Serbia’s territorial integrity and accommodating the demands by Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians for full independence. “Serbia is focused on defending the integrity of its territory,” Draskovic was quoted as saying.

An explosive device killed two teenage boys in southeastern Turkey on Saturday, the state news agency reported. The boys found the device on the ground in the southeastern border province of Sirnak, the Anatolia news agency said. Both were killed instantly when it exploded, Anatolia said. Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast is the site of frequent clashes between separatist Kurdish rebels and Turkish soldiers. (AP)