Ahmadinejad Files U.S. Visa Application

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, says Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has filed an application to visit the United States.

The application was presumably filed so the Iranian president could attend next week's Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference, opening May 3 at the UN headquarters in New York.

A U.S. State Department spokesman, Philip Crowley, said that if Ahmadinejad wants to attend the event, "I don't think we're going to stand in the way."

compiled from agency reports