"Ireland can transform to the next stage if it does the right things, " Gil Erez, Israel's minister for commercial affairs for the UK and Ireland, told the Sunday Tribune. "We believe we are there already and want to be involved when Ireland moves up a step. Once we were exporters of goods, but now it's know-how."

Erez was in Dublin on a three-day mission last week that included meetings with Enterprise Ireland, Dublin Chamber of Commerce, the Irish Software Association and the Irish BioIndustry Association. The delegation was seeking ways to match Ireland's multinational operational experience with Israel's capabilities in research and development, especially in hightech fields such as IT, biotechnology, medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

Although trade between the two countries exceeds 500m annually, direct co-operation between companies is rare. Fifty Ireland/ Israel joint research projects are under way as part of the European Commission's sixth Framework Programme, mostly in health and IT, but commercial joint ventures are almost unheard of.

Last year the Israel-Ireland chamber of commerce tried to launch a project matching 30 small Israeli software firms with Irish partners, but it fell through from lack of interest.

Israel's new export focus is water technology, an industry the small desert country is in a position to dominate, having pioneered desalination, drip irrigation and cheap water recycling to provide for a rapidly-growing population and a lucrative agricultural sector. Israel already exports $850m in water tech solutions and expects to reach the $3bn mark by 2010 on the back of climate change regulatory initiatives.

"We cannot do everything by ourselves, " said Erez. "We're trying to find new ways to the global market ...that is one reason to visit here."