Rice Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq

Secretary of State of Condoleezza Rice, on a heavily guarded surprise trip to Iraq on Sunday, urged patience for the country's fragile new government and said Iraqis have made remarkable political progress that can overcome a recent surge of violence.

"Obviously there is a security situation ... I want and have wanted to go to Iraq at the right time, and the right time is when they had a new government," Rice said en route to this town in Kurdish northern Iraq.

Rice flew immediately to the mountain stronghold of Kurdish Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani. She rode in an Apache military helicopter under extremely heavy security.

The one-day trip was Rice's first visit to Iraq as the nation's top diplomat.

Rice was a chief architect of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as White House national security adviser during President Bush's first term and she accompanied Bush on his own surprise visit to Iraq on Thanksgiving Day 2003.

Rice said she wanted to discuss the new government's upcoming tasks including writing a constitution, as well as addressing the country's security and infrastructure needs.

Rice told reporters the August deadline to write a federal constitution was imposed by the Iraqis, not the United States. The continuing political situation and security challenges in Baghdad have complicated the process and some in the Iraqi government now say that deadline may not be realistic.

"There needs to continue to be some momentum in the political process," Rice said after her meeting with Barzani.

After the meeting Rice flew to Baghdad where she had a full schedule of meetings planned with top government officials, including Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari, Cabinet members and a group of deputy prime ministers.

The visit came as U.S. Marines wrapped up a weeklong campaign against insurgents along the Syrian border. It was the most intense fighting for U.S. forces in months.

"Yes, the insurgency is very violent, but you can beat insurgencies not just militarily," Rice told reporters. "You can beat them having a political alternative that is strong," and in which all Iraqis are invested, Rice said.

Rice was the first senior American official to visit the country since the new government was sworn in. Her trip was weeks in the planning, but kept secret, even from top State Department officials until the last minute.

Most Iraqi officials learned of the visit only hours before Rice landed in the region aboard a borrowed government plane, said a senior adviser to Rice, Jim Wilkinson

"We went to every length possible to keep it from as many people as possible," Wilkinson said. "If you didn't need to know, you didn't know."

If the timing of Rice's trip underscored the importance U.S. officials place on the success of the new multiethnic government, the secrecy and security surrounding the visit were evidence that Iraq is a dangerous and unstable place two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Rice rejected any assertion that the tight security reflects poorly on the success of the U.S. led effort to rebuild Iraq.

"It says there are terrorists and old Baathists who want to destroy the seeds of democracy in Iraq and the seeds of democracy in the Middle East, that's what it says," Rice said.

Rice had canceled an earlier planned trip when word got out.

"The secretary was extremely unhappy that someone leaked her first planned to trip to Iraq in March," Wilkinson said.

Rice traveled with a much smaller contingent than usual. It included just three reporters.

Iraq's new government has been three fractious months in the making, allowing the excitement and momentum from the successful January 30 elections to fizzle. The delay may have also emboldened militants.

A surge of militant attacks has killed at least 430 people across Iraq since April 28, when the country's first democratically elected government was announced. Many of those killed were Iraqi police and security forces and civilians.

U.S. military officials have urged al-Jafaari to act quickly to avoid a loss of confidence and goodwill among Iraqis.

"It's very hard what the Iraqis are being asked to do which is cast off years and years of tyranny and dictatorship and come to political unity in what is a very complicated place," Rice said.

"I think it's quite remarkable what they've done," so far, she said.

The partial Cabinet approved by members of Iraq's National Assembly left top posts reserved for Sunni Arabs, but they remain unfilled because of continuing political turmoil and ethnic rivalry. The Cabinet includes Ahmed Chalabi, the former Bush administration favorite who fell out with Washington before the January elections.

The government is supposed to expire in December, after writing a national constitution and holding new elections.

The U.S. offensive 200 miles west of Baghdad was meant to root out followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraq's most wanted militant.