The US State Department has invited UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy on Iraq to Washington for talks on the post-conflict period.
UN special envoy Rafeeuddin Ahmed has been invited to Washington on Monday for a series of briefings involving officials from the State Department, the Defence Department and the White House National Security Council, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said on Friday.
Annan says the United Nations should play a key role in Iraqi reconstruction after the fighting has ended but US officials have been resisting spelling out precisely what that role might be.