Rice makes surprise visit to Iraq

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the northern Kurdish city of Arbil on Sunday at the start of her surprise visit to Iraq, the al-Jazeera TV channel reported.

According to a US Embassy spokesman, Rice, who arrived in Arbil on a C-17 military plane from Qatar, will then travel to the capital of Baghdad for talks with Iraqi officials and US military commanders.

Rice's visit came at a time when Iraqi insurgents have mounted attacks to try to cripple the government.

Before her stop in Baghdad, Rice would go to Salahudin resort to hold talks with Masoud Barzani, the newly elected Kurdish regional leader.

She is expected to discuss the political process and measures to quell an insurgency that has killed more than 400 people since the transitional government was formed late last month.

The US administration hopes the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari can make some political moves including granting some former Baath party members a chance to serve in the new government and offering pensions to officers of former Iraqi army.

Sunni Arabs, representing more than 20 percent of the country's population of 25 million, largely boycotted the January parliamentary election as some refused the political process under occupation.

On Friday, a top Shiite cleric of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which dominates Jaafari's new government, called for purging all former high-ranking Baath party members from the government.