President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shored up opposition to a US drive to curb Iran's nuclear programme during a visit to Venezuela last night.
Mr Ahmadinejad's first trip to Venezuela highlighted Iran's backing for the fellow Opec country's bid for a UN Security Council seat that President Hugo Chavez would use to challenge Washington's campaign for international sanctions against Tehran.
Mr Chavez, who Washington calls a destabilising, anti-democratic force, cast the visit as two countries jointly defying what he says is the imperialist aggression of the world's only superpower.
"It is a union that seeks a balance in the world and to save the future of your children, my children and our grandchildren," he told a state-owned TV network.
Iranian-Venezuelan ties have previously focused on co-operation as major oil exporters, but the leaders emphasised their new bond in standing up to the United States.
"Nowadays, we have common goals and interests," said Mr Ahmadinejad, who repeatedly called his counterpart by his first name. "We have to be united."
"I salute all the revolutionaries who oppose world hegemony," he added in an apparent reference to the United States.
Mr Chavez, who welcomed Mr Ahmadinejad at the capital's airport walking with his arm across his visitor's shoulders, said: "Two revolutions are giving each other a hand."
"They (the Iranians) are threatened by the American empire. The empire does not want any nation to develop," he said. Mr Chavez has offered unspecified help to Iran should the United States attack its nuclear programmes.
Mr Chavez has also expressed interest in working on technology with Iran if Venezuela ever developed a nuclear programme.
But the presidents did not focus on the atomic issue yesterday, preferring to stress economic cooperation, including a joint $1.5 billion petrochemical investment.