DAMASCUS (IRNA) -- Iran's President Mahmud Ahmadinejad is to pay a day-long visit to Syria on Thursday to congratulate President Bashar al-Assad on the beginning of his second seven-year term in office as Syria's president.

President Al-Assad is officially to be sworn in for his second term in office on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki and Minister of Housing and Urban Development Mohammad Saeedi-Kia will accompany President Ahmadinejad on his Syria visit. Ahmadinejad is to review expansion of Tehran-Damascus political and economic cooperation as well as the latest regional and international developments with his Syrian counterpart. According to informed sources, the Iranian president will probably have meetings with several senior Syrian officials.