During a summit held at Cheong Wa Dae, President Lee Myung-bak and President Islam Abduganievich Karimov also agreed to expand bilateral cooperation to develop oil, natural gas and coal mines of the Central Asian country.

A Cheong Wa Dae official told The Korea Times that the Uzbek leader expressed particularly a deep interest in Korea’s information technology as Uzbekistan plans to establish a ministry to oversee this area.

“The Uzbek leader said that he would like to offer the job of vice minister of the IT ministry to a Korean national,” the official said.

“President Lee said it’s not fair for a Korean to assume the fancy job as there should be many Uzbek people who would die for it. The two leaders laughed. The Uzbek leader’s remarks revealed the Central Asian country’s enthusiasm to upgrade its IT technology and eagerness to get help from South Korea.”

Karimov is one of the world leaders with whom President Lee has strong ties. The two leaders were initially scheduled to hold an expanded talk following the summit. But they had to cancel it as their summit continued for more than an hour.

The two leaders have met every year since President Lee took office in February 2008. This summit followed President Lee’s visit to Uzbekistan last year.

After the meeting the two sides released a joint statement.

In the statement, Lee said South Korea is willing to provide financial and technical support for Uzbekistan as major projects in investment, education, health, telecommunications and agriculture are underway in the Central Asian country.

Karimov asked South Korean firms to more actively participate in an industrial cluster project.

The two sides shared the view that South Korea will need to bolster and diversify aid to Uzbekistan through the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

They also agreed to step up efforts to promote bilateral and multilateral cooperation to fight international terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime by multinational groups.

On the sidelines of the summit, Cabinet ministers of the two countries signed four accords, including the military intelligence pact, and the tourism promotion accord.

Karimov arrived in Seoul Wednesday for a three-day state visit to Korea.