(supersedes previous)Rome, January 26 - Visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that economic collaboration and dialogue are the way forward. Just as on recent successful nuclear negotiations, "we must engage in a win-win economic collaboration," he told at an ongoing Italy-Iran Business Forum in Rome on what is his second day in the nation's capital. "Iran is currently the safest and most stable country in the entire (Middle Eastern) region," Rouhani said. Iran is open to foreign investors "after years of sanctions," Rouhani said. "Iranians know Italy and your work - they trust Italians," he said. The leader added that Islam's Koran, or holy book, teaches interfaith tolerance between Christians, Jews and Muslims. "The church, the synagogue and the mosque sit next to one other," Rouhani said. "We must first preserve the church, then the synagogue, then the mosque - this the culture of tolerance the Koran teaches us". Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni hailed renewed relations with Iran and the oil, raw material, transportation and other business deals being signed between the two nations as a sign that the late Enrico Mattei's dream of dialogue and economic collaboration "has become reality". Mattei (1906-1962) organized Italy's Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (ENI) fuel company after World War II, and negotiated oil deals with Iran and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. "When we began our activities in Iran, we were dreamers, Gentiloni said, quoting Mattei.