U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will visit Syria next week for talks with Syrian officials, U.S. media reported Friday.

Pelosi is expected to lead a delegation of members of Congress and arrive in Damascus on Tuesday and leave on Wednesday, the report said, and it is not immediately clear whether she will meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The move would make Pelosi, who is visiting Israel now, the highest-ranking U.S. figure to visit Syria in years.

The White House swiftly criticized Pelosi's plan as "a really bad idea."

"Assad probably really wants people to come and have a photo opportunity and have tea with him and have discussions about where they're coming from but we do think that it's a really bad idea," White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group has urged the Bush administration to engage in talks with Syria and Iran over Iraq. However, the Bush administration has largely ignored the suggestion.

Source: Xinhua