US Secretary of State Condolezza Rice arrived in Chile on late Friday to attend the inauguration ceremony of the country's first-ever female president, Michelle Bachelet.

The ceremony is to be held on Saturday at the congressional building in the port city of Valparaiso, 120 kilometers northwest of Santiago.

During her visit, Rice is also expected to hold talks with the newly elected Chilean president, outgoing President Ricardo Lagos, Bolivian President Evo Morales and Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez who also come to attend the inauguration, according to local media reports.

Bachelet, the first female president in Chile's political history, was elected on January 15 for a four-year term in a runoff to succeed fellow socialist Lagos, who is leaving office with an approval rating of more than 70 percent.

Bachelet, a 54-year-old former health and defense minister and separated mother with three children, called the Chileans' acceptance of a female president a historic event.

Bachelet's father was an air force general who was tortured and died in prison for opposing the 1973 military coup led by Augusto Pinochet. She and her mother were also imprisoned and tortured before they fled to Australia and then to the former East Germany.

Source: Xinhua