Hillary Clinton arrives in Baghdad hot on heels of Bush

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, November 29, 2003

Hillary Clinton arrives in Baghdad hot on heels of Bush

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Former US first lady Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Baghdad hot on the heels of a lightning stealth visit by US President George W. Bush for a Thanksgiving dinner with US troops, officials said.

Clinton was due to spend just one day in the insurgency-ridden Iraqi capital after her visit to Afghanistan Thursday in which she spent Thanksgiving with troops there, said a coalition interior ministry official, Thomas Basile.

Before lunch, she met with senior officials of the Coalition Provisional Authority including US overseer Paul Bremer, said Clinton's spokeswoman.

"She then had lunch with troops from her home state (New York) in the dining hall at the palace," she said, referring to the city centre mansion of Saddam Hussein which is now the seat of the occupation administration.

"She was walking through the hall and people were coming up to her. It was a half-hour lunch," the spokeswoman said.

Unlike the US president, who never even left the main military camp at Baghdad airport during his two-and-a-half hour stopover, Clinton then left the heavily fortified complex around the palace to go and visit troops.

"At the moment, she is on a visit with a military division outside the security zone," said the spokeswoman.

"Later this afternoon she will be meeting with both non-governmental organizations and Iraqis in leadership positions," including a woman member of the interim government, public works minister Nasreen Mustafa Sadiq Barwari.

"We are running a little bit behind schedule -- she may then have time to meet with more US troops."

The spokeswoman declined to reveal her departure time for "security reasons."

The persistent threat from insurgent missiles against planes using Baghdad airport means plane movement times are always kept under the tightest wraps.

Bush's presence in the Iraqi capital was not even released until Air Force One was safely back in the air.

Clinton is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and has been making her tour of US troops deployed to conflict zones overseas accompanied by Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed.

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