Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, is coming to Nebraska in late May. The Afghan president, a longtime U.S. ally and a one-time student of Thomas Gouttierre, the director of the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Center for Afghanistan Studies, will receive an honorary degree from UNO, Gouttierre said Tuesday.

Karzai will likely be in the state just one day during an American trip that will also include a White House meeting with President Bush and a honorary degree ceremony at Boston University.

The exact dates and Karzai's itinerary in Nebraska aren't yet finalized, largely because of security reasons, Gouttierre said.

The Afghan president has been to the Cornhusker state once before, traveling to Nebraska to discuss a post-Taliban government with Gouttierre and others in 1999.

He won Afghanistan's presidency in September after being named interim president shortly after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.