Rice, Rumsfeld impressed by new Iraqi PM

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said after meeting Iraq's new Prime Minister-designate yesterday they were impressed with his commitment to unite the country.

US President George W. Bush, who has called for a national unity government in Baghdad to help defeat a Sunni Arab insurgency and end sectarian blood-letting, dispatched Ms Rice and Mr Rumsfeld to Baghdad to hold talks with Nuri al-Maliki. "He was really impressive," Ms Rice told reporters after the meeting with the tough-talking Shi'ite Islamist, nominated last week to end four months of political paralysis in Baghdad over the formation of a new government after December elections.

On top of the long-running insurgency there has been an explosion of sectarian violence in Iraq since a Shi'ite shrine was bombed in February, raising fears among many Iraqis of a possible slide into civil war.

The bloodshed has threatened Mr Bush's hopes of starting to withdraw some the 133,000 US troops in Iraq before US congressional elections in November.

Mr Maliki, who has vowed to appoint ministers on merit to represent all Iraq's communities in his planned national unity government, won praise from leaders of the Sunni minority for his first major television interview on Tuesday.