Tehran, which holds the world's second largest gas reserves, currently supplies one third of Ankara's domestic demand.

Iran began pumping natural gas to Turkey on Sunday following disruptions in supplies for three weeks, but the flow was far less than normal, Anatolia news agency reported.
The gas began flowing at around 1400 GMT at a rate of between 1.5 and 2.0 million cubic meters a day, far below the usual 29 million cubic meters a day, the agency said.
Turkish energy officials said they expected the amount to gradually increase in the coming days, the NTV news channel was quoted by AFP as saying.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for National Iranian Gas Company confirmed restoration of gas flow to Turkey on Sunday. “Iran has started with the exports of about three million cubic meters of gas per day and the volume will gradually increase,“ Ebadollah Qambari was quoted by MNA as saying.
Iran turned off the pipeline on January 7, citing cold weather and a consumption crunch. In addition to the cold snap in Iran that peaked domestic consumption, Turkmenistan also stopped sending gas to the Islamic Republic. Turkey in turn was forced to stop its gas exports to western neighbor Greece and increase its imports from Russia.
In January last year, Iran stopped gas supplies to Turkey for five days to compensate for a similar domestic increase in consumption.
Turkish officials have said Ankara and Tehran are considering a long-term plan to build a second pipeline to bypass Iranian cities, which are also supplied by the existing conduit between the two countries.
Turkey has been buying gas from Iran via a pipeline from the northwestern city of Tabriz to Ankara since December 2001 as per a contract signed in 1996.
Tehran, which holds the world’s second largest gas reserves, currently supplies one third of Ankara’s domestic demand.

Draft of the fifth five-year economic development plan will be handed over to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei by February.
Various working groups dealing with the plan will finalize their works and submit the plan to the leader by the end of current Iranian month to February 19, deputy head of the Presidential Department for Strategic Planning and Supervision said.
Amir Mansour Borqaei told MNA on Monday that the leader would put forward the draft plan to the Expediency Council (EC), the body in charge of giving final touches on the plan before its final approval.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a decree on October 7, called on his first deputy Parviz Davoudi to set up a high council to draft the plan.
The council, comprising the first vice president and 27 other members, has been working on the plan since October.
Working groups in executive bodies have also been conducting studies on the plan for the past seven months.
Meanwhile, the State Expediency Council (SEC) should decide on a bill on implementing the general policies of Article 44 of the Constitution which seeks large-scale privatization and downsizing the government, Fars news agency reported.
The parliamentarians stood by their previous proposals on the bill which was returned from the Guardians Council (GC) for review.
The vetting council, which has final say on Majlis approvals, had returned the enactment to parliament to revise the bill on 24 issues.
The lawmakers insisted on their views in 23 out of 24 issues. So the bill has to be submitted to SEC for a final decision.

The 14th International Exhibition of Printing and Packaging Machineries will open in Tehran today (Tuesday) and will continue until February 1, according to a fax sent to Iran Daily by the organizers of the event.
Some 105 foreign and 395 domestic companies are participating in the event which is being held at Tehran’s International Fairgrounds.
Firms from the UK, Germany, Italy, UAE, India, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Tunisia, Turkey, Sweden, Austria, Thailand and ECO members states will display their products in the four-day event.
Some 40 percent of domestic pavilions were allocated to companies from Tehran province.
The number of participants in the exhibition has grown by 20 percent in comparison to the figure for last year’s event.
Other than manufacturers of printing and packaging equipment, printing houses, service providers as well as representatives of major graphic art companies and suppliers of large format printers and other companies involved in graphic communications are taking part in the event.
Head of the Union of Printing Industry Exporters stated that the approach toward holding the exhibition should be changed with the aim of ensuring a greater share in the international market.
Reza Rezaei further disclosed that the first national prize in packing design suitable for export will also be awarded at the event.
He sought the cooperation of officials in this regard, adding this industry is related to 480 occupations nationwide.
The event has provided Iranian printing industry a chance to develop closer interactions with major international firms and paved the way for transfer of technologies.
The exhibition also seeks to introduce the potentials of domestic industry, create opportunity to establish relations between reputable foreign and domestic companies by concluding agreements as well as providing appropriate grounds for the exchange of views among those involved in the industry.

Deputy head of Iran’s Customs Administration has said those who import fuel-efficient vehicles would be entitled to tariff incentives.
Importers have to pay five percent less duties on cars with consumption of below six liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers, Mohammad Reza Naderi was quoted by IRIB as saying late Sunday.
A five-percent discount will be given for every 0.25 percent cut in consumption, he added.
Individuals should pay a 90-percent customs duty on each car authorized to enter the country now. New foreign cars which have local representative offices and are approved by the Department of Environment as well as the Iran Standards and Industrial Research Institute are authorized to import.
Local representative offices must render after-sales services including repairs and spare parts.
Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil exporter, implemented a gasoline rationing plan late last June to cut excessive fuel consumption.
The oil-rich country sells 2.5 million barrels of crude per day. But it has to spend more than two billion dollars a year on importing gasoline, which is heavily subsidized.
Under the newly-ratified Comprehensive Public Transportation Development Law, the government plans to eliminate fuel subsidies in 2012 to relieve state coffers of such huge financial burden.
The discount in tariffs for importing fuel-efficient vehicles, hybrid cars as well as machineries and equipment is part of the responsibilities mandated to the government to this end.

Black pearls, frequently referred to as Black Tahitian Pearls, are highly valued due to their rarity.

Researchers of Iran Fisheries Research Center have managed to breed Caspian elephant fish and Persian Gulf black-lip oyster, said head of the center.
Abbasali Motallebi referred to preserving indigenous aquatic species in inland waterways as the main goal of the center, IRIB wrote.
Black pearls, frequently referred to as Black Tahitian Pearls, are highly valued due to their rarity.
Extraction of pearl from black-lip oysters was banned 20 years ago because of the destruction of their habitat and the decline in their population in Lengeh and Lavan regions of southern Iran.
Thanks to efforts of researchers over the past two years, about 50,000 black-lip oysters were bred and released in the Persian Gulf waters.
Fisheries Research Centers will make these oysters available to private investors for breeding, he pointed out.
Given that a string of pearl necklace is worth over 10 million rials, he said, production of pearl products could create jobs for the local population and increase the value-added of exports.
Regarding the breeding of Caspian Sea elephant fish as the precious species for caviar production, Motallebi explained that researchers have arranged for cross-breeding Caspian elephant fish with Hungarian elephant fish. This, he said, is an important achievement in terms of preserving the roe of this species.

Studies show that auto manufacturers ranked first in the number of shares sold in the stock exchange this winter.
According to the Persian daily ’Iran’, the companies attracted 40 percent of stock market customers during December 22, 2007-January 26, 2008.
It added that 1.5 billion shares, worth 4,951 billion rials, were traded in the stock market during the period, of which 455 million shares, worth 815 billion rials, pertained to automakers.
It was further announced that 24,300 and 5,100 customers purchased shares of Saipa and Pars Khodro auto manufacturing companies respectively.
A group of brokerage firms ranked second attracting 12,660 buyers with the help of banks and leasing companies. Bank-e Karafarin and Rayan Saipa sold the highest number of shares among the companies.
Investors of this group exchanged 194.7 million shares worth 200 million rials among bidders during the period.
Metal companies, including Mobarakeh Steel Company, National Iranian Copper Company and IRALCO, occupied the third place in the bourse this winter. Investors purchased about 202.5 million shares of firms worth 839 billion rials since December 22.
The report noted that mining and chemical companies occupied the fourth and fifth place in the stock exchange respectively.

Persian Carpet exports hit $300 million since March 2007, said managing director of Iran Carpet Company.
Jalaleddin Bassam further described the largest carpet in the world, which was woven on an order placed by the UAE, as a manifestation of Iranian art, IRIB said.
The 6,000-square meter carpet, ordered by Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, UAE, was put on display at Tehran’s Mosalla (grand prayer ground) last August.
“Since the mosque has not yet been completed and the carpet will be spread in the mosque after five months in a media event.“
The official added that the company fulfilled its pledge to deliver the carpet after joining together different parts of the carpet which was then transferred to Dubai Airport in two Ilyushin aircraft.
Praising the weavers and installers of the giant carpet, he called it another breakthrough for Iranian artists.
“Our rivals cannot match Iran in the near future in terms of producing such huge and quality carpet.“
On an order placed by Oman in 2006 for nine hand-woven carpets with a total area of 250,000 square meters worth $600,000, he said that so far three carpets have been woven and sent to Oman.
“Three more are ready for delivery while two will be delivered by Thursday,“ he pointed out, expressing hope that the last one would be completed by next week.
Bassam continued that the company has also received an order from Oman for four carpets which would be completed soon.
In another order, this Persian Gulf Arab country has placed an order for 22 carpets measuring a total area of 290,000 square meters, he said, of which 17 are being woven at a loom in Neishabour, Khorasan Razavi province and whole order would be delivered by March 2009.
Referring to an order placed by Armenia for weaving a 70-square-meter carpet for the Presidential Place, the official explained that the carpet had to be finished within six months and six days. However, it was delivered one day sooner, he concluded.