UNITED NATIONS, Jan 23: The Bush administration invited UN Secretary-General Special Adviser Lakhdar Brahimi to Washington on Thursday to discuss the role the world body could play in helping it in returning Iraq to self rule, officials said.

Mr Brahimi, who just ended a two-year term as chief UN envoy in Afghanistan, discussed "the way forward in Iraq" at the White House with Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, a senior US official said.

Mr Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister who is now a top adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, also met Robert Blackwell, a senior director at the National Security Council, and others, the official said.

The Bush administration has made no secret of wanting Mr Brahimi to head a future UN mission in Iraq.