Havana  - Cuban President Raul Castro expressed confidence in building stronger ties with Iran, after a meeting with a special envoy of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, local media reported Thursday.

Iranian Industry and Mining Minister Ali Akbar Mezharabian met Castro late Wednesday and delivered a message from Ahmadinejad for the Cuban president and his brother Fidel, Cuban Communist Party daily Granma reported.

Castro stressed on his "confidence that relations between Cuba and Iran will continue to get stronger, based on respect and gain."

Mezharabian said Iran has increased its credit to Cuba for the purchase of transport equipment to 686 million dollars. About 212 million dollars of this has already been used to buy 830 freight and passenger railway carriages.

In talks with the Iranian envoy, Castro expressed "the condemnation of the Cuban people and government of the Israeli aggression against Gaza," Granma reported. (dpa)