HARARE – President Robert Mugabe will travel to Iran on Sunday in a bid to bolster economic ties and elicit investment from the Persian Gulf state as the West continues to withhold critical funding needed to fully restore the once vibrant economy reports ZimOnline.

Mugabe’s trip comes just weeks after a visit by hardliner Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to open the country’s annual trade exhibition in Bulawayo.

During the five-day trip to Tehran, Mugabe is expected to hold talks with Ahmadinejad and business leaders and sign cooperative agreements that he hopes would see increased investment into the country.

Mugabe last month backed Iran's controversial nuclear programme and charged that the West was seeking to punish the two countries for asserting their independence.

“Yes the President will be leading a delegation to Iran on Sunday. It is a state visit at the invitation of the Iranian government,” an aide in Mugabe’s office said, declining to give further details.

Iran faces a possible new round of United Nations sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. The West accuses Tehran of trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran says it aims only to generate electricity.

Zimbabwe itself escaped UN sanctions in 2008 after Mugabe's re-election in a second round poll marred by political violence, which forced his rival, Morgan Tsvangirai to pull out despite outpolling Mugabe in the first round voting.

Mugabe was eventually forced to form a power-sharing government with Tsvangirai, now prime minister, in February 2009.

A government minister denied last month media reports that Ahmadinejad’s visit was linked to a deal for the Persian Gulf country to mine uranium in Zimbabwe in exchange for oil.

Mugabe has previously said Zimbabwe has rich uranium deposits in the Zambezi valley but metallurgists say such evidence has not been backed by any prospecting activities in the area.

Zimbabwe has for the past five years been pursuing a “look east” approach, targeting countries from Asia to invest in the country with little success.

China, which usually provides small loans to Harare, told Finance Minister Tendai Biti last month that Zimbabwe should start to repay its loans if it is to continue receiving funding from Beijing.

Early this month Zimbabwe inked a $400 million agreement with China's Sinohydro to expand Kariba hydro electricity plant.

But the country has also previously signed hundreds of millions of dollars worth in cooperation agreements with foreign governments to boost its electricity generation capacity, but has not made progress in getting any of the projects off the ground.

In July 2005, Zimbabwe signed a $200 million deal with Iran's Farab Company for the extension of the Kariba South power station, but the deal fell through after Zimbabwe failed to raise the required deposit for the loan.

A raft of deals with China totaling $1.3 billion for the building of new coal mines and three thermal stations, signed in 2006, have also not yielded results.

Ahmadinejad’s visit last month was boycotted by Tsvangirai’s MDC and further widened rifts within the coalition government. The MDC described Mugabe's decision to invite Ahmadinejad as a "colossal political scandal".

By Zimonline