U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Baghdad after she paid an unannounced visit to the Iraqi oil hub of Kirkuk earlier on Tuesday.
On her arrival at Baghdad's Green Zone, which houses the U.S. embassy and the Iraqi government offices, Rice headed to President Jalal al-Talabani's residence, where she held meeting with several Iraqi leaders.
A U.S. embassy spokesman told Xinhua that Rice is expected to hold a joint news conference with her Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari later in the day.
Earlier, Rice surprisingly arrived at Iraqi oil hub city of Kirkuk in a mission aimed at supporting UN reconciliation efforts in the ethnically fragmented city.
During the visit, Rice held a meeting with Kirkuk's elected municipal officials and representatives from the Kurdish, Sunni Arab, Christian, Turkmen and Shiite communities, with the aim of supporting UN reconciliation efforts in the ethnically mixed city.
A day earlier, the Kurdish regional government agreed to a six-month delay in holding a referendum that would decide whether the city would be annexed to the Kurdish autonomous region or stay under the control of the central Iraqi government.
"I have always looked forward to coming to Kirkuk. It is an important province for the future of Iraq," Rice told a meeting during her surprise visit to the city.
"I wanted to talk with you about how the provincial reconstruction teams are helping to bring prosperity, creating jobs and bringing political reconciliation," she said.
Ahmad al-Askari, a city municipal member, told reporters that Rice stressed on the necessity for a peaceful solution for Kirkuk's issue in cooperation and coordination with the United Nations.
It is the first visit by Rice to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, and also her eighth visit to Iraq as U.S. Secretary of State.
Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, has witnessed increasing tension, since the collapse of Saddam Hussein regime in 2003, as Arab and Turkmen population in the city are fighting Kurdish efforts to join the city to their autonomous region just to the north.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article