President Leonel Fernandez, whose country shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti, said he had had a "cordial and pleasant" telephone conversation with Preval.

Although Preval had pledged that the Dominican Republic would be his first official visit abroad, no date had been set, Fernandez's office said.

Preval, 63, was declared the winner of the February 7 presidential election on Thursday following a reshuffling of blank ballots in an internationally brokered deal over fraud claims.

Partial results initially placed him short of the majority he needed to avert a second round, but his score jumped up more than two points to 51.15 percent after blank ballots were included in the total count and distributed on a pro-rata basis to the 32 candidates.