US denies Haig arranged Nixon visit on his own

The White House and the State Department are denying a report that Secretary of State Alexander Haig helped arrange former President Richard Nixon's tour of the Middle East without telling President Reagan.

The Washington Post, quoting unnamed White House officials, reported that presidential counselor Edwin Meese III and chief of staff James A. Baker III were angered to find the Nixon trip had been kept secret.

Mr. Nixon took off on a tour of Saudi Arabia and three other Arab countries after flying to Cairo as a member of the official US delegation to the funeral of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. The State Department described it as a ''private visit.''