Rice makes surprise visit, says time short, Iraq must decide solutions to problems

Rice's flight into Baghdad was delayed for 35 minutes by 'indirect fire' around airport. The road from the airport to the green zone has been called 'a six-mile shooting gallery of snipers, bombs and mayhem'.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, making an election-season visit to Iraq, said Thursday she will tell its leaders they have limited time to settle political differences spurring sectarian and insurgent violence.

"They don't have time for endless debate of these issues," Rice said during a news conference aboard her plane. "They have really got to move forward. That is one of the messages that I'll take, but it will also be a message of support and what can we do to help."

Rice said Iraqis must resolve for themselves complex problems such as the division of oil wealth, possible changes to the national constitution and the desire for greater autonomy in various regions of the country.

"Our role is to support all the parties and indeed to press all the parties to work toward that resolution quickly because obviously the security situation is not one that can be tolerated and it is not one that is being helped by political inaction," she said.

Car bombs, as well as other explosions and shootings, killed 34 people across the country Wednesday. At least 21 U.S. soldiers have been killed since Saturday, a disproportionately high number. Most of the casualties have been in Baghdad amid a massive security sweep by American and Iraqi forces that has been going on since August.

A military transport plane that flew Rice and her party into Baghdad Thursday had had its landing delayed by 35 minutes by "indirect fire" _ either from mortar rounds or rockets _ in the airport area, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

Rice met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other officials as the sectarian spiral of revenge killings between Shiites and Sunnis threatened to undermine his government. The tit-for-tat killings have become the deadliest violence in Iraq, with thousands slain in recent months, and Shiite and Sunni parties in his coalition accuse each other of backing militias.

"Obviously the security side and the political side are linked," she told reporters.

Read the rest at the Washinton Post

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