Egypt’s newly elected Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi denied media reports claiming he plans to visit Iran and expand the “axis of evil.”

Less than a week after denying that he spoke with Iran’s Fars News Agency and would “reconsider” the 1979 peace treaty with Israel, Morsi rejected a report in a Lebanese newspaper, quoted by Fars, of a planned visit to Tehran.

Egypt and Iran had no relations since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, but signs towards close ties and even an alliance have emerged since the departure of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The Lebanese daily Al-Safir reported Tuesday  that Morsi would visit Iran in August during a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), of which Egypt is the rotating president. Iran is expected to take over the presidency next month.

Egypt has not made it clear if it will attend the NAM conference.

The Lebanese newspaper quoted Morsi as saying, “The Iran-Egypt relations are expected to witness an eye-catching growth in coming weeks,” the daily said.

Despite Morsi’s strenuous denials of even having spoken with Fars, dominated by the revolutionary Guards, it continued to claim that Morsi stated that a renewal of relations between Cairo and Tehran “will create a strategic balance in the region.”