Syria's shooting down of the jet last Friday was "a very sensitive issue" that also concerns Tehran, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said, just ahead of an emergency NATO meeting on the incident.

"We will use our good relationship with the two countries to resolve the issue," Ramin Mehmanparast said in his weekly news briefing.

He hoped "key players in the region" would be able to contain the incident and prevent other countries from being dragged in.

"It should be resolved through restraint and negotiations and (the two sides) should avoid measures that disturb the security of the region," he said. "We hope this issue will be resolved rapidly."

Syrian air defences brought down a Turkish F-4 Phantom fighter over the eastern Mediterranean. Damascus insists the jet was fired on inside its territory and called the flight "a gross violation of Syrian sovereignty."

But Turkey, while admitting the plane had "briefly" flown through Syrian territory, has called the downing a "hostile act of the highest order" and called an emergency NATO meeting on Tuesday to discuss it.

Imports would be suspended because the EU would stop offering any type of insurance on such shipments from July 1, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in a statement.

A meeting of EU ministers ended Monday with no indication that South Korea would be exempted from the sanctions as it requested, the ministry said.

From the start of next month European firms will be banned from insuring or reinsuring tankers transporting Iranian oil anywhere in the world. South Korea relies entirely on European companies for such insurance.

South Korea bought 9.4 percent, or about 87.2 million barrels, of all its crude needs from Iran last year, but has already reduced purchases in return for a waiver from separate US sanctions.

The ministry said it would work hard to secure alternative sources of crude to minimise the effect on the country's economy. It said shipments from Iraq and elsewhere had already increased.

The government will also try to ease the impact of sanctions on exports to Iran, the ministry said. Iran is South Korea's third largest market in the Middle East.

Exports to Iran were up 32 percent from a year earlier to $6.07 billion in 2011. They were worth $2.9 billion in the first five months of this year, a 40 percent rise on the same period last year.