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NEW DELHI, Feb 12 (AFP) - India and Iran are to sign an agreement to set up a joint working group on terrorism and security during a visit by a senior Indian home ministry official to Tehran this week, a report said Wednesday.

The Indian Express newspaper said that home secretary N. Gopalaswami was on a four-day visit to Iran to finalise the joint working group that would also focus on activity in Afghanistan of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

"The home secretary has gone for a final round of talks with officials including the deputy interior minister," the report quoted an unidentified Indian official as saying.

"The working group is likely to be constituted during this visit itself," the official said.

The main purpose of the working group was to share intelligence on al-Qaeda activities in Afghanistan, the report added.

Afghanistan and international terrorism figured prominently in talks between Indian leaders and Iranian President Mohammed Khatami during his three-day visit to India last month.

India, Iran and Russia were the main backers of an anti-Taliban alliance which routed the hardline Islamic regime with US help in Afghanistan in November 2001.

Khatami was guest of honour at India's 54th Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi on January 26. 

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