A delegation of University of California, Davis, officials discovered that a country belonging to the so-called "axis of evil" can actually be a friendly place.

UC Davis Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef and his five traveling companions returned Saturday from their groundbreaking trip to Iran eager to cultivate academic and cultural ties with the country, which President Bush designated in 2002 as part of an "axis of evil" threatening U.S. security interests.

The UC Davis delegation reported Monday that it was enthusiastically welcomed by Iranian citizens, UC alumni and Iranian university officials during its weeklong visit to Tehran and Isfahan.

"We were treated warmly and graciously by adults, with curiosity and respect by children," Vanderhoef said. "One young lady - I will never forget this moment to the day I die - she said to me very seriously, 'Do you think that we are all terrorists?' "

The chancellor said the young woman gave him a lot to think about, and that Iranians "were in fact quite pro-America."

The trip was UC Davis' first to Iran since the country's 1979 revolution, which led to the establishment of an Islamic regime.

In addition to Vanderhoef, the other travelers were Vice Provost William Lacy; Neal Van Alfen, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; Enrique Lavernia, dean of the College of Engineering; and Robert Kerr, director of International Visitors and Alumni. Mohammad Mohanna, a Sacramento businessman, naturalized citizen from Iran and member of the UC Davis Foundation Board, also participated.

No agreements were brokered on the trip that was paid for by UC Davis - which kicked in about $12,500 for airfare - and the delegation's Iranian hosts.

Vanderhoef said he now hopes to develop academic exchanges between the two countries.

For instance, he said, officials discussed the possibility of an academic exchange for Iranian students that would allow them to spend the first two years of their college education in Iran and their last two years in the United States.

One of the most fruitful areas of discussion centered around agriculture, Van Alfen said.

California and Iran, he said, grow many of the same crops - such as wheat, pistachios, walnuts and peaches - and rely heavily on irrigation. Because the area around Iran is where many of our crops were first grown millennia ago, that area has more diverse seed stock.

Those seeds, he said, might help American researchers develop heartier, tastier or more pest-resistant crops.

"There's just a huge genetic resource there that needs to be tapped," he said.