US President Barack Obama has said the Netherlands can attend the next G20 meeting in Pittsburgh in September, adding that Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has expertise relevant for the leaders' summit.

President Obama was speaking on Tuesday morning during talks with Prime Minister Balkenende, who is on his first official visit to Washington since Mr Obama's inauguration. Officially, the Netherlands is not a member of the G20 grouping, the strongest economic nations in the world.

The Dutch and US leaders first had a private conversation for 20 minutes in the Oval Office. They were then joined by Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch Ambassador and various other officials. The American delegation included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Adviser James Jones.

On the agenda were relations between the US, the Netherlands and Europe, and global cooperation to deal with the economic crisis, climate change and food distribution. The Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan were also discussed. The meeting lasted an hour. The Dutch top delegation also has a scheduled meeting with the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.

Dutch PM Jan Peter Balkenende by Jacco de Boer (flickr)