ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari will pay an official visit to the United States next month, according to sources.

During the visit, Mr Zardari will hold meetings with President Barack Obama and other US leaders and government functionaries.

“The president will visit the US by the end of February or in early March,” presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said on Sunday.

Mr Zardari recently returned from an unofficial visit to the US. He had travelled to the US to attend the memorial service for Richard Holbrooke, the US special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, who died last month. The sources said that the president himself had borne the expenses for the private visit.

Though his visit was not official, Mr Zardari called on Mr Obama for an informal meeting that lasted for 40 minutes.

It may be mentioned that Mr Obama is expected to visit Pakistan by the end of the current year.

The spokesman said that the recent meeting between the two leaders was a brief one which focused on the efforts the two countries had made in the war on terror and its fallout on Pakistan's economy and the US support to democracy in the country.

At the forthcoming talks, Pakistan is likely to press for transfer of drone technology.