The agreement came in a ceremony attended by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his Uzbek counterpart Islam Karimov, in which the countries signed a total of 16 deals that included a contract on the joint exploration and drilling of new oil fields here.

Lee and Karimov agreed to boost their economic and energy cooperation in a summit held earlier Monday.

The oil exploration deal, signed between South Korea’s state-run Korean National Oil Corp. and Uzbekistan’s national energy firm Uzbekneftegaz, comes in addition to an agreement signed in 2006, which made Seoul the main contractor for explorations in Uzbekistan’s Namangan-Tergachi and Chust-Pap regions.

The regions are believed to hold as much as 10.5 million tonnes of gas and 9.2 million tonnes of oil, according to South Korean officials.

"This will be a very important opportunity for the development of the relationship between the two countries, as well as the development of Uzbekistan," the South Korean president earlier said of his summit with Karimov.

Under a separate deal, also signed at Monday’s ceremony, Seoul agreed to provide US$17.6 million to Tashkent from its Economic Development Cooperation Fund to help build a new sewage system in Uzbekistan’s southwestern city of Navoi.

Uzbekistan’s Asaka Bank, in a memorandum of understanding with the Export-Import Bank of Korea, agreed to create a $200-million credit line for South Korean businesses working to modernize Navoi’s international airport and build a surrounding new city.

Tashkent also agreed to a visa waiver for South Korean diplomats.