US President George W. Bush will formally announce Wednesday that Texas entrepreneur Sada Cumber will be the first US envoy to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the White House said.
Bush, who first indicated in June 2007 that he would send an envoy to the OIC, was to meet with Cumber and then make his choice public at 2:10 pm (1910 GMT), spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters.
"It is an important organisation, it has a constructive role to play in the world, and the president is signalling our desire to have a greater dialogue with the organisation as well as Muslims around the world," she said.
Cumber is currently chairman and chief executive officer of wireless imaging company SozoTek. Asked why Bush's search for an envoy had taken as long as it had, Perino replied: "He wanted to find the right person and he found that in Sada Cumber."