Home Minister P Chidambaram is travelling to the US early next week to hold consultations with officials and law enforcement agencies helping India in investigating the Mumbai terror attacks.

During the three-day visit starting Tuesday, his first international trip after taking over as Home Minister last December, Chidambaram will meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, National Security Advisor James Jones, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, top officials of department of Homeland Security and FBI among others.

Chidambaram, who was invited to visit the US by Clinton during her recent visit to India, will go to New York and Washington. Though the talks would be centred around the progress in the investigations into the Mumbai attacks, Chidambaram is not taking along any officer from the Mumbai Police or the National Security Guards, two agencies that led the operations against the terrorists on November 26. He will be accompanied by an official each from the Intelligence Bureau and RAW and a joint secretary from the Home Ministry.

Chidambaram would also get a first-hand knowledge of the capabilities of the US security agencies in dealing with a terror strike. Chidambaram had planned to travel to the US in January but had to abandon his plans, to attend to a crisis created by an indefinite strike called by officers of public sector oil companies.