WASHINGTON Former President Pervez Musharraf has been offered a job in Washington Pakistan chair at the Middle East Institute.

Mr Musharraf also met former US Vice President Dick Cheney who is still in Washington although the Bush administration has completed its tenure on Jan. 20.

The US State Department has indicated that Mr Musharraf might have met senior officials at the Pentagon during his three-day stay in the US capital.

The department's spokesman Robert Wood told a briefing that he's not aware of the meetings Mr Musharraf may have had with US officials but he asked reporters to check with other departments, saying that 'one place to start would be the Pentagon.'

Mr Musharraf arrived in the US earlier this month. This week, he spent three days in Washington where he met American scholars, think-tank experts and friends. He leaves for home from New York on Saturday evening.

Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani also attended a reception hosted by the Middle East Institute.

The institute's head, former US ambassador to Pakistan Wendy Chamberlain, also urged Mr Musharraf to be their next scholar-in-residence on Pakistan.

The institute is willing to create a special Pakistan chair, should Mr Musharraf accept the offer.

Sources close to Mr Musharraf said the former president seems interested in the offer, which will give him the chance to write another book on his experience as the head of a country considered key to US security.

Only a few Pakistanis were invited. Mr Musharraf did not address the gathering but the guests did talk to him in small groups.

Besides Ambassador Haqqani, Pakistan's Ambassador at Large Riffat Mahmood, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, former State Department officials Robin Rafael and Daniel Markey, and scholars Steve Cohen and Marvin Weinbaum also attended the reception.

Ambassador Haqqani, when asked to comment on his meeting with Mr Musharraf, said he attended the reception and shook hands with him but said it was normal for diplomats to attend such events.

The US administration provided full protocol and security to the former president.

Asked who paid for Mr Musharraf's security arrangements, the State Department spokesman said he's a former head of state and urged the journalist who asked the question to check with the Pakistan Embassy in Washington.

The embassy, however, said they did not pay for Mr Musharraf's security.