Rice urges unity amid violence in Iraq

The US will stay committed to what it hopes will be an inclusive Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday, but violence flared even as she touched down in the Iraqi capital.

Ms Rice made an unannounced visit, her second to Iraq this year, during which she said she wanted help ease the sectarian tensions that have dominated the campaign for a parliamentary election on December 15.

Three Iraqi policemen on patrol were wounded when a car bomb exploded in a central area of Baghdad within minutes of Ms Rice's touching down in a military helicopter in the capital's heavily fortified Green Zone.

Ms Rice flew in from Bahrain to the northern city of Mosul, scene of violence between Sunni Arabs and Kurds, and said her goal was to urge Iraqis to bridge sectarian and ethnic divisions and create a single country where all felt "fully protected".

"These differences can be a strength rather than a handicap," Ms Rice, who is touring the Middle East and Asia, said in a joint news conference in Baghdad with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari. She said Washington would support no particular candidate next month, despite complaints from some that US officials are working behind the scenes to favour certain groupings. Sectarian tension between Saddam Hussein's once-dominant Sunni Arab minority and the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government have dominated the election campaign.

Ms Rice's visit came as US public and congressional support wanes for the US-led war in which more than 2,000 soldiers have died and many thousands more have been wounded.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed or wounded in daily acts of violence.