By Nelson Banya
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has backed Iran's controversial nuclear programme and accused the West of seeking to punish the two countries for asserting their independence.
Mugabe was speaking at a banquet he hosted for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who arrived in Harare on Thursday for a two-day visit.
"Be also assured, comrade president, of Zimbabwe's continuous support of Iran's just cause on the nuclear issue," Mugabe told Ahmadinejad.
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.
There was no official indication of any link between Ahmadinejad's visit and Iran's nuclear programme but Zimbabwe does hold uranium deposits which have yet to be exploited.
Zimbabwe itself escaped U.N 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 eventually bowed to international pressure and agreed to form a power-sharing government with Tsvangirai, now prime minister in February 2009.
The Iranian president's visit has widened rifts within the coalition government, with Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party describing Mugabe's decision to invite Ahmadinejad as a "collosal political scandal".
Tsvangirai and officials from his MDC boycotted a welcoming ceremony for the Iranian president. Quoting unnamed government sources, the state-controlled Herald newspaper said the boycott was in solidarity with Western nations opposed to Ahmadinejad's government.
Mugabe said Zimbabwe and Iran have been unjustly vilified and punished by Western countries.
Zimbabwean state media quoted the Iranian president saying the West was using the U.N. Security Council to exert pressure on his country to abandon its nuclear programme.
"Unfortunately, the United Nations Security Council, which is supposed to serve the whole world, has been used by the powerful to increase pressure on our countries," Ahmadinejad is quoted saying.
Reuters Africa
