The Associated Press

Fri, May 16, 2008 (4:27 p.m.)

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will visit four nations in the Middle East later this month to discuss foreign investment, the fight against terrorist financing and Iran.

The Treasury Department said Friday that Paulson will visit the region from May 30 to June 2 for stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

The Treasury statement said his talks with government officials would focus on the importance of maintaining open investment policies, the need to track down the flow of money to terrorist groups and efforts to protect the global financial system from abuse, particularly from Iran.

Last October, the administration announced harsh new economic penalties against Iran and its largest bank in an effort to increase the pressure to get Iran to end activities that could produce a nuclear bomb.

At that time, Paulson had said that as awareness of Iran's deceptive practices have grown, many banks around the world have decided to stop doing business with the country.