The parliament speaker of Azerbaijan, Murtuz Aleskerov, has ended a two-day visit to the province of Eastern Azerbaijan in Iran -- the first visit there by a senior Azeri politician for more than fifty years.

Mr Aleskerov reached agreement with the local authorities to increase economic and cultural co-operation between the two halves of the divided Azeri nation.

A BBC correspondent in Baku says the visit breaks new ground: he says the Iranian authorities, who've tried in the past to deal with the assertion of Azeri national identity in the province, have previously been wary of allowing politicians from Azerbaijan to visit their fellow Azeris.