BALI -- Iran's Vice President and Head of the Department of Environment Ma'soumeh Ebtekar in a meeting with Indonesian State Minister of Environment Nabil Makarim here on Friday called for expansion of mutual cooperation in environmental affairs.

The meeting's agenda focused on Tehran-Jakarta further cooperation in exploiting natural resources, forests in particular, taking measures to bring the air pollution under control and using Indonesian experts' experience in preservation of forests, IRNA reported.

Iran's Vice President and the Head of its Department of Environment (DOE) Ma'soumeh Ebtekar here Thursday blamed industrial countries as developing nations came to a face-off against the United States at a meeting, held in this Indonesian resort island, to tackle world poverty while protecting the environment.

The stalemate in Bali talks could be blamed on the failure of certain industrial nations to fulfill their financing pledges to the developing nations, She said.

Ebtekar, who was addressing the UN-sponsored preparatory meeting for World Summit on Sustainable Development, said the same cause had kept the goals set at the 1992 earth summit in Rio de Janeiro from materializing, IRNA reported.

The Rio summit put environmental issues on the world political agenda for the first time.

She said the bali meeting could serve as an appropriate occasion to set the tone for a sustainable development and to address what has kept certain countries from making good on their pledges made in previous summits.

Ebtekar stressed the significance of the action plan to be drawn up at the Bali meeting, and said the international community must feel duty-bound to implement the contents of the plan.

She further stressed the need to tap new financial resources to push ahead with the goals, set in the 1992 Rio Earth Summit as well as those declared by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on sustainable development.

"Although there had been several breakthroughs to tackle such challenges as water, poverty, sanitary and the unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, the success of the bali talks is still in doubt as there has been no tangible progress in such issues as financial commitments of world (developed) countries," Ebtekar said.

Ebtekar called on the international community to adopt measures to protect the environment better, and also to support the developing nations in facing up the perceived threats of globalization.

"Globalization must include both the developed and the underdeveloped nations on an equal footing, and all world nations must benefit from its advantages," she said.

During the meeting, Ebtekar invited the Indonesian minister to pay a visit to Iran, and Makarim welcomed the invitation.

Ebtekar arrived in Bali on Monday to attend a three-day UN-sponsored ministerial meeting on sustainable development meant to finalize a series of implementation plans that should help world leaders stick to their commitments to sustainable development.

The Bali meeting which opened on Wednesday follows a UN meeting of environment officials and activists in Bali that began last Monday to sketch out a draft action plan to protect the planet.

An early draft of the revised action plan was released on Sunday.

It is called the draft plan of implementation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development.