Iran's investment environment is not attractive and the country should take measures to improve the situation if it wants to lure Japanese firms, Deputy Foreign Minister Minoru Tanba told his Iranian counterpart, Mohsen Aminzadeh, on Monday.

Tanba made the remarks in response to Iran's call for increased investment from Japanese firms, ministry officials said. Tanba said Iran's frequent alterations to investment rules, for example, should be rectified and incentives should be given to foreign investors.

Aminzadeh told Tanba that Japan's technical cooperation with Iran is quite beneficial and proposed that such cooperation be extended to train people in countries in Central Asia. Tanba responded that priority should be placed to boost bilateral cooperation and that it is premature to extend such cooperation for other countries, the officials said.

Tanba and Aminzadeh met in Tokyo for the fifth vice ministerial consultation. The high-level dialogue was initially planned for May, but Tokyo suspended it in April following a German court ruling that top Iranian leaders were behind the 1992 murder of four Kurdish dissidents in Berlin.

Tokyo, however, has been keeping normal dialogue channels open with Iran, hoping to encourage its government to constructively engage the international community.