BEIRUT: Lebanon and Iran Wednesday signed 17 trade agreements in the economic, oil and energy fields, as visiting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Tehran is capable of solving the country’s chronic electricity problems.

Ahmadinejad, who held talks with President Michel Sleiman at Baabda Palace, stressed that Tehran was prepared to improve the volume of trade between Lebanon and Iran, volumes the Iranian leader said were currently bellow Iran’s aspirations.

Among the key agreements which were signed at the Presidential Palace was an energy accord between Energy and Water Minister Jibran Bassil and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. Details of the agreement were not disclosed during the signing ceremony, but Bassil has on previous occasions assured that Iran can help Lebanon build power plants at very competitive rates.

Bassil, who visited Iran four days ago, discussed the possibility of signing contracts to build one or two gas-operated power stations at reduced rates.

Talking to reporters after a meeting with Iran’s Energy Minister Majid Namjoo in Tehran, Bassil said that Iran was determined to help solve Lebanon’s problems in the field of energy.

He noted that his country was interested in using Iran’s experience in all fields.

Bassil announced a deal with Iran to set up a technical committee to review Lebanon’s energy-sector shortfalls.

“Iran can export electricity to Lebanon via Turkey and Syria,” he said, adding that Lebanon boasted sizeable water resources, but, that it had not been able to make optimal use of them.

“Lebanon will use Iran’s experience in various fields such as dam construction” the minister said.

He urged Iranian oil companies to explore and develop Lebanon’s oil and gas fields.

On Friday, Bassil and Namjoo signed in Beirut a deal to provide Lebanon with $450 million worth of letters of credit to allow the Lebanese government to finance some of the ambitious energy projects.

Lebanon is in dire need of more power stations to meet the growing consumption, which, according to experts, reached its peak some 10 years ago. At present, Lebanon’s electricity output is less than 1,600 megawatt , while the actual need is over 2,400 megawatt .

Bassil warned that his ambitious $5 billion plan to restructure the electricity sector would fail if any of the project’s clauses were amended or delayed at the implementation stage.

“This document will lead to a solid electricity sector with more than 4,000 megawatts of power up to 2014 and 5,000 megawatts after 2015. We are talking about a stable and secure distribution and transport network,” the minister said.

Under the plan, the government will allocate $1.550 billion, while $2.320 billion will come from the private sector, and the remaining $1 billion will be in the form of donations and soft loans from the donor nations that took part in the Paris III conference.

Electricity “losses would reach $9.5 billion in 2015 if the current vacuum was kept,” Bassil warned. However, if adopted, the plan would lower losses from $4.4 billion this year to zero in 2014, he said.