Brussels, 20/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - Upon invitation of the Government of Iran, a delegation of EU Troika experts visited Iran on 16-17 December for the first formal meeting of the formalised EU-Iran Human Rights Dialogue. In addition to officials, the EU delegation included a number of civil society representatives. The meeting comes shortly after the initiation last week in Brussels of negotiations for concluding a trade and cooperation agreement with Iran, an agreement that will comprise a clause on human rights (see EUROPE of 12 December, p.13). In Teheran, EU representatives submitted to the Iranian party a list of individual cases to which the EU gives special importance, without, however, specifying which cases. Monday and Tuesday's talks were devoted to a series of exchanges on discrimination and torture, which, according to a Danish EU Presidency press release, took place in "an open and constructive atmosphere". The EU will "assess progress under the dialogue on the basis of concrete benchmarks", the press release also stated. The European side noted the agreement given by the Iranian government to the arrival of UN Thematic Rapporteurs, including the UN Rapporteur on violence against women, who will arrive in Iran in early 2003. Europeans and Iranians agreed to continue dialogue early next year, under Greek EU Presidency.