WASHINGTON, Aug 11: US President George Bush indicated on Thursday that the new Iranian president would receive a US visa to attend the annual session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

US officials had earlier said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s alleged role in the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran could influence Washington’s decision on whether to accept his visa application for attending the General Assembly session.

Under an agreement with the UN, as the host country of the annual event the US cannot deny visa to a foreign head of state or government coming for the General Assembly. It was under this agreement that in the past the US was obliged to issue visas to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and to Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Mr Bush, who met at his Texas ranch with members of his foreign policy team, also said that US investigators still have not determined what role Mr Ahmadinejad may have played in the 1979 takeover. Even so, Mr Bush said, the United States had separate obligations to other countries as the host nation for the United Nations, which is headquartered in New York.