Trade between Iran and China will rise to more than $20 billion, a foreign ministry spokesman for the Islamic republic said on Sunday.

Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said trade between the two countries is set to increase 33% from $15 billion currently, without giving a timescale, reported state news agency IRNA.

“Once the projects, to be implemented by the two countries, come to stream, volume of transactions between Iran and China will rise to more than $20 billion," Hosseini said in his weekly press conference, quoted IRNA.

Iran’s parliament speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel also said on Sunday Iran plans to expand relations with China in various fields, following a meeting with China’s ambassador to Tehran Liu Zhentang.

Zhentang said a major part of this expansion will be in the oil and gas sector, reported local news agency ISNA.

"Iran is the second major producer of oil and gas and China will be its biggest market in the future," the ambassador said.

Trade between Iran and China has been increasing at a tremendous rate since the turn of the century as China looks to secure more and more energy to fuel its growing economy.

In 2001, Iran-China trade volume stood at around $3.3 Billion, and in 2005, the volume of Iran-China trade had increased to $9.2 billion .