Iran's president off to Venezuela for Maduro's inauguration

TEHRAN, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has left Tehran for Caracas to attend the inauguration ceremony of Venezuela's new President Nicolas Maduro, official IRNA news agency reported Friday.

Ahmadinejad is accompanied by a number of Iranian officials including Foreign Minister Ali Akbar-Salehi.

Venezuela held presidential elections Sunday after former President Hugo Chavez died of cancer in March. Maduro was declared Monday to be president-elect for the 2013-2019 term, after a narrow win over opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.

Since 2005 when Ahmadinejad came to the office, Iran has been seeking to enhance ties with Latin American countries to relieve economic and political pressure from sanctions imposed by the West.

Over the past years, Ahmadinejad's frequent visits to Venezuela and other Latin American countries and Iran's warm relations with them have stirred worries in the West about Iran's expanding influence in the region.

After the death of Chavez, the Iranian government declared a mourning day in the country.

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