US President George W. Bush has invited Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's interim government chairman, to visit the United States next month, the White House said on Thursday.
Karzai will meet with President Bush and thank the American people for their support in forming a post-Taliban government, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters at Crawford, Texas, where the Bushes are vacationing.
James F. Dobbins, the US special envoy to Afghanistan, told Karzai shortly after he took office of Bush's wish to have Mr. Karzai visit Washington, McClellan said.
The visit, the first by an Afghan leader in almost 40 years, will be announced once a date is fixed, which may come when new US envoy Zalmay Khalilizad meets Karzai on Friday, a senior Bush administration official said.
( January 4, 2002)
