PHNOM PENH, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) — Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah arrived here Sunday for a three-day official visit to discuss gas and oil exploration cooperation with Cambodia, said a senior official.

    Officials from both sides will discuss the possibility of cooperation for oil and gas exploration in the kingdom and sign a trade agreement, a protocol of investment protection and cooperation, said Hor Nam Hong, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

    According to the schedule, the prime ministers from both sides will hold talks here on Monday, while other officials and investors convene another meeting at the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce.

    Meanwhile, Mao Hal Vannal, secretary of state of the Civil Aviation Authority of Cambodia, told Xinhua that the two countries still mull opening direct flight in their middle-term cooperation plan.

    A dozen foreign drillers are exploring oil and gas in off-sea Cambodia. Oil reserves there are estimated at billion barrels. 　

Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah (L) and his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen listen to national anthem of their countries during Sheikh Nasser’s welcoming ceremony at Phnom Penh international airport August 3, 2008. Sheikh Nasser is in Cambodia for a three-day official visit.

    "Cambodia will not be affected" by this decision, he told Xinhua at the airport while receiving a senior Kuwaiti delegation.

    It is a good thing that they stop fruit export and cancel product exhibition, because some Cambodians would become angry and destroy those products on show if they didn’t do so, he said.

    "It could make turmoil," he said, adding that the 20-day-long military standoff between the two countries at the border area has made the Cambodian people reluctant to buy Thai products.

    Dispute over the ownership of the Preah Vihear Temple in the eponymous Cambodian province and the land around it has propelled both sides to station over a thousand troops at the border area since July 15. All diplomatic efforts have failed so far to retrieve the situation.

    Trade volume between Cambodia and Thailand stood at 1.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2007, a 10.56 percent increase over 2006, according to the figures released by the Cambodian Commerce Ministry in March this year.