Paulson to visit Middle East later in May

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will visit the Middle East later this month to stress the United States' commitment to open investment, the Treasury said on Friday.

Paulson will visit Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Treasury is promoting a best practices guide for sovereign wealth funds, powerful state-owned investment funds that wield hundreds of billions of dollars that have been under scrutiny in some quarters for potentially harboring political agendas.

Paulson will also be talking about terror financing "and efforts to protect the global financial system from abuse, particularly by Iran," Treasury said in a statement.

(Reporting by Alister Bull, Editing by Andrea Ricci)