President Bashar Assad will not attend next week's UN world summit in New York, a Syrian official said. In a related development, the United States said it had granted a visa to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to attend the General Assembly. Diplomats had said Assad would try to use the meeting to polish Syria's image, which has been tarnished by Lebanese accusations of involvement in the February 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The visit would have been the first by a Syrian president to New York to take part in a United Nations function. "The Syrian president will not head the Syrian delegation to the summit," an official familiar with Syria's preparations told Reuters. "It has not been decided who will head the delegation, but this does not undermine Syria's keen interest in the subjects on the agenda of the summit." The official did not elaborate.