ANKARA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to pay a visit to Turkey next month at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul, Turkish Daily News reported on Friday.

    Ahmadinejad's potential visit has been on the agenda for a longtime but could not be finalized due to both the international crisis over Iran's nuclear program and Turkey's presidential and general elections that took place last year, according to the report.

    The two neighboring countries have boosted economic, trade, energy and security ties in recent years and the energy ministers of the two sides recently signed a preliminary agreement on transferring Iranian natural gas through Turkish territory and allowing Turkish companies to develop three Iranian natural gas fields in southern Iran.

    A couple of documents focusing on economic relations would be signed during the presidential visit, the report added.

    Turkey's close energy and trade ties with Iran are not welcomed by the United States, which argues that they would encourage Iran not to cooperate with the international community to solve the nuclear program issue.

    Turkey, on the other hand, says that its close ties with Iran allow it to dispatch the international community's message to Tehran as openly as possible.

    Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said earlier that Turkey has no formal mediation mission but described the country's role as "one that is, in a sense, consolidating and facilitating" the negotiations between Iran and the six major powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

    Babacan will meet his Iranian counterpart Manuchehr Mottaki next week in Tehran on the eve of the summit of non-aligned countries.