Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has postponed a planned trip to Brazil this week until after next month's elections in the Islamic Republic, Foreign Ministry officials said Monday.

Tehran's ambassador to Brazil Mohsen Shaterzadeh personally delivered a letter from Ahmadinejad to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, asking that he "accept the postponement of the official visit until ... after the presidential election," officials said.

The two governments are to consult on a new mutually agreeable future meeting date for the two leaders.

The Iranian leader, who had been due to arrive in Brazil Wednesday, will also push back planned visits to Ecuador and Venezuela, the officials said.

A delegation of more than 100 members, including top Iranian business leaders, was reportedly to have accompanied Ahmadinejad on his South American travels.

The June 12 Iranian election pits Ahmadinejad against conservative Mohsen Rezai, who headed Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps for 16 years up until 1997.

Other candidates include former parliament speaker and reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi and former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, also a reformist.

The Iranian leader's outreach to Latin America comes as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others raise concerns about the Islamic Republic's inroads in the region.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi told reporters Monday that Tehran would not be deterred from its outreach to Latin America.

"We have active relations with Latin American countries ... in the field of culture, economy and politics. This relation is based on mutual respect and common interests," the spokesman said.

"We consider it our right and also the right of other countries to expand relations with different countries based on (mutual) interests."

Clinton said Friday that the growing "economic and political connections" between Iran and Latin America were not in the interests of the United States.

She urged Washington to engage anti-U.S. leaders in Latin America as a way to check what she called "disturbing" Iranian and Chinese inroads.                   

منبع: yahoo ! News