Anchor: South Korea and Qatar have reached an agreement on energy and industrial cooperation, coinciding with President Lee Myung-bak's official visit to the country. Our Kim In-kyung has the story.

Report: Minister of Knowledge Economy Hong Suk-woo signed a memorandum of understanding Thursday with his Qatari counterpart to accelerate cooperation between the two countries on smart grids, information technology and medical treatment. Hong reached the agreement on the sidelines of a summit held between President Lee Myung-bak and Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

South Korea and Qatar will also open an energy cooperation channel for the stable supply of crude oil and for the development of new regeneration energy. The two countries will hold the first energy and industrial cooperation committee meeting in South Korea as early as April to discuss specific plans.

Meanwhile, Qatar's Ras Laffan LNG agreed to supply two to four million tons of liquefied natural gas a year to Korea Gas Corp. over the next 21 years. The first shipment will arrive this month and is expected to stabilize surging LNG demand for electricity generation during the winter months and beyond.

The two countries also agreed to cooperate on green growth ahead of and following the United Nations climate change meeting in Qatar in May. Senior presidential secretary on green growth, Kim Sang-hyup, said South Korea's green technology center being established next month will cooperate with Qatar's science and technology park.

During President Lee's summit with the Qatari Emir, the two leaders agreed to expand cooperation beyond the energy sector to include scientific research, defense, sports, and green growth.

Kim In-kyung, KBS World Radio News.