The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Kirkuk

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq on Tuesday on a previously unannounced visit, an AFP correspondent travelling with her said. The trip was aimed at supporting the reconciliation efforts of the new UN envoy in Iraq, Steffan de Mistura, in the religiously and ethnically diverse city in the Kurdish autonomous region. During her visit, which was not announced in advance for security reasons, Rice will meet representatives of the Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite Arab, Christian and Turkmen communities. On Monday Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the autonomous Kurdish regional government, said his administration favoured delaying by six months a referendum on the future of Kirkuk, easing immediate tensions among the mixed population. "The regional government is in favour of this extension," said Barzani after meeting in the central city of Najaf with the Shiites' most influential cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.