WASHINGTON, June 13: President George W. Bush settled a debate within his government and decided to invite President Pervez Musharraf to Camp David later this month, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

The report said that some Bush aides were worried about how India would react to the visit but intelligence agencies strongly supported the Camp David treatment for President Musharraf, since Pakistan has been crucial as a recruiting ground and a staging area for operations in Afghanistan.

The decision to welcome Mr Musharraf at Camp David presidential resort is “a reward for his continuing help in the war on terrorism,” said the report.

Mr Bush plans to use the June 24 visit to lean on Mr Musharraf to work harder to prevent Al Qaeda from using his country to regroup, and to continue improving relations with India, US officials told the Post.

According to this report, the United States and Pakistan hope to sign a preliminary trade agreement.

Pakistani officials also expect President Bush to continue discussions about US requests for troops to aid stabilization in Iraq.

Visits to Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Tex., are reserved for heads of government with whom the president wants to show a special kinship, but foreign governments consider Camp David a close second and far preferable to a White House meeting.

“Both the optics and the substance are better at Camp David,” a Pakistani official told the Post. “This shows President Bush considers it a personal relationship.”

US officials said they were encouraged by India and Pakistan’s efforts to defuse tensions between them. Bush will discuss proposals for the peaceful handling of the conflict over Kashmir, the report said.

“Pakistan has been stalwart in working with us to fight terrorism, and Camp David is appropriate to the strength of the relationship,” a senior Bush official said.

Rajan Menon, an Indian expert on South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the newspapers that the primary topic of the meeting was likely to be a Bush appeal for Pakistan to clamp down on Islamic militants operating largely beyond the control of the national government in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan. “The US will push him to do more, and he’ll say he’ll do more, but I’m quite dubious,” Mr Menon said.

President Musharraf will not stay overnight at Camp David, which would be an even higher level of hospitality, the report said. He will visit Washington as part of a four-nation trip that will last two weeks and will include meetings with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac. He will also stop in Germany.

Mr Musharraf will arrive in Washington on June 23, stay in a luxury hotel that night and then fly to Camp David the following morning for meetings and lunch with Bush. He is scheduled to have a working lunch with Vice-President Cheney the next day.

His visit to Washington is scheduled to include meetings with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Army Gen Tommy R. Franks, US commander of the war in Iraq.