Obama invites Netanyahu for post-Iran deal talks- report

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks in Washington next month after a deadline for reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran, an Israeli newspaper reported on Tuesday, quoting State Department sources. A spokesman for Netanyahu's office had no immediate official comment on the report. Officials speaking on condition of anonymity, however, told reporters that no such invitation had been received. The mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth daily quoted unidentified sources at the State Department as saying Obama had invited Netanyahu for talks in mid-July, after a June 30 deadline for a major powers deal with Iran on its nuclear programme. Netanyahu has criticised the emerging deal Israel fears will allow Iran the means of making a bomb, while also granting it sanctions relief that could help bankroll its guerrilla allies in the region. Iran says its nuclear projects are peaceful. (Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Nick Macfie)