WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush will host Lebanese President Michel Sleiman September 25 for wide-ranging talks on the Middle East, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement Friday.

"The president looks forward to discussing bilateral relations between the United States and Lebanon, US support for a sovereign and democratic Lebanon, and a range of regional issues," she said.

It will be their first meeting since Sleiman was elected in May.

The two leaders were expected to discuss the Middle East peace process as well as Syrian efforts to preserve its influence in its smaller neighbor, and Lebanese national unity talks scheduled for September 16.

The announcement of the visit came two days after the car bomb assassination Saleh Aridi, the first pro-Syrian political figure to die in an attack of this kind, in what was widely seen as an attempt to derail the unity talks.

The slaying of Aridi, whose party is allied with the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, was the latest in a string of car bomb attacks began in Lebanon in 2005, targeting mainly anti-Syrian politicians.

In February 2005, five-times former premier Rafiq Hariri was killed by a huge bomb on the Beirut seafront.

The international and domestic backlash against his killing resulted in Syria withdrawing its forces from its tiny neighbor after nearly 30 years.

But Lebanon and Syria just last month announced their intention to open diplomatic ties for the first time since they both gained independence from France 60 years ago. -AFP