Rice Visits Iraq

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit Tuesday to the city that Iraq's Kurds call their Jerusalem, an oil-rich territory claimed by many where the United States says it sees new signs of cooperation and progress.
Rice was seeing members of a civilian-military reconstruction unit based in Kirkuk and meeting provincial politicians of all stripes. She was meeting Iraq's central leadership later in Baghdad. Such reconstruction units were expanded along with the escalation of U.S. forces President Bush ordered this year.
Sunni Arabs ended a yearlong political boycott earlier this month in Kirkuk -- the hub of Iraq's northern oil fields -- under a deal that sets aside government posts for Arabs. It was the biggest step yet toward unity ahead of a referendum on the area's future.
Rice was highlighting that development, although a separate ethnic group is still boycotting the provincial governing council, and the new role of the United Nations in resolving the future of disputed Kirkuk.