Romanian Foreign Minister Razvan Ungureanu held talks with Turkish officials here Friday on the two countries' efforts to join the European Union and ways of enhancing bilateral economic ties.

"We would like to benefit from Romania's experience on EU issues. We had very fruitful discussions on that," Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told a joint news conference with Ungureanu.

Romania, along with Bulgaria, hopes to join the EU in 2007, while Turkey is set to begin accession talks on October 3.

The Romanian minister said his country was ready to help Turkey's accession process.

Bucharest is also willing to ease the visa regime for Turkish investors to ensure they have a "direct access" to the Romanian market even if the borders remain between the two countries.

The two ministers said they also dicussed bilateral cooperation in the field of energy.

Turkey and Romania have developed close ties since the end of the Cold War, during which they belonged to opposite camps.

Gul said the volume of bilateral trade was close to three billion dollars, and that Turkish investments in Romania had reached about 800 million dollars.

Ungureanu also met with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. He was scheduled to leave Turkey later Friday.