WASHINGTON, April 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The U.S. has invited Iraqi opposition representatives to a meeting Tuesday, April 15, near Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, a spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress and U.S. officials confirmed Friday, April 11.

"I received an invitation from Tommy Franks," the U.S. general directing the war in Iraq, to the meeting at a military base outside Nasiriyah, Sharif Ali bin al-Hussein said.

"There will be one representative from each (Iraqi opposition) political movement only," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The main Iraqi opposition groups include the U.S.-backed Iraqi National Congress (INC), the Iraqi National Accord (INA), the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the Islamic Al-Dawa party, the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (DPK), and the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI).

"It will be one meeting of many that will be conducted in the future all over Iraq," Al-Hussein said.

Earlier Friday, a military spokeswoman at the U.S. war headquarters in Qatar said a "meeting will be held in the near future in southern Iraq."

Representatives "from across all of Iraqi society, including expatriates," will attend the gathering that will be facilitated by the U.S. Central Command (Centcom), said spokeswoman Major Rumi Nielson-Green.

Asked about Chalabi, INC leader, Al-Hussein said no decision would be taken yet on the leadership.

"No decision will be taken there. It will be an exchange of views. We are far away from choosing the interim leader of the Iraqi authority," he said.

"It will be a platform for Iraqis inside the country to express their views for the first time," Al-Hussein added.

Retired U.S. general Jay Garner is due to take up the post of head of an interim administration for Iraq in the coming days, but Chalabi has called for elections to be held within two years after a new constitution is drawn up.

The U.S. delegation will be led by Zalmay Khalilzad, the White House special representative to the Iraqi opposition, to be accompanied by Ryan Crocker, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs and Garner.

The U.S. State Department hoped these meetings "will culminate in a nationwide conference that can be held in Baghdad in order to form the Iraqi Interim Authority."

"We expect this to be the first in a series of regional meetings that will provide a forum for Iraqis to discuss their vision of the future and their ideas regarding the Iraqi Interim Authority," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.