Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to head to Afghanistan on Wednesday, his first trip to Tehran''s eastern neighbour since the re-election last August of his counterpart Hamid Karzai.

"The president is going on Wednesday" to Afghanistan, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters at his weekly press conference.

On Sunday, an Iranian news agency, Mehr, reported that Ahmadinejad was to make a one-day trip to Kabul on Monday to hold talks with Karzai on the challenges facing war-torn Afghanistan.

But an official at Ahmadinejad''s office later denied the timing.

Ahmadinejad and several Iranian officials have repeatedly called for the withdrawal of US-led forces from Afghanistan, saying their presence was stoking the Taliban insurgency.

But despite their rivalry, Washington and Tehran are both sworn enemies of the extremist Sunni Muslim militia which ruled in Kabul from 1996, before being overthrown in the 2001 US-led invasion.