WASHINGTON — Despite intense disagreement over suspected nuclear weapons and terrorism, the Bush administration decided yesterday to allow the former leader of Iran, President Khatemi, to visit America.

A visa was granted yesterday to Mr. Khatemi and several Iranians who will accompany him on the visit early next month, a State Department spokesman, Tom Casey, said.

His travel will be unrestricted.

Mr. Khatemi plans to attend a U.N. conference September 5–6 and speak at the Washington National Cathedral on September 7.

No meetings with American officials are anticipated, Mr. Casey told reporters at a briefing.

Mr. Khatemi would be the most senior Iranian official to visit Washington since Islamic fundamentalists seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held Americans there hostage for 444 days.

The Iranian Embassy in Washington closed in April 1980. The two countries have not had formal relations between them since then, although American and Iranian diplomats have participated in multinational meetings, such as on Afghanistan.

A growing number of former American diplomats and members of Congress have urged the administration to talk to Iran about their disagreements.

Currently, the Bush administration is locked in a fierce dispute with Iran over what Mr. Casey yesterday said was the country’s defiance of U.N. Security Council demands that it suspend enrichment of uranium.

The spokesman reaffirmed the Bush administration’s intentions to seek U.N.sanctions against Iran if it does not comply by tomorrow’s deadline.

The administration also regards Iran as a sponsor of terrorism.