Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, has made a surprise visit to Baghdad to check progress in US-Iraq military operations in the city aimed at combating sectarian violence.
 
Rice made the trip days after Iraqi and US troops began a new offensive to end attacks in the capital that have claimed thousands of lives.
 
  
The US secretary of state, en route to Israel as part of a six-day Middle East tour, said Iraq was "off to a good start".

"The... plan is just beginning to unfold and it's important to realize it was never intended to be a single day, it was intended to ramp up over time," she said.

 "[But] if militias decide to stand down and stop killing innocent Iraqis... that can't be a bad thing."

However, she said Iraqi officials had to take advantage of any "breathing space" created by the security push, seen by many as the final push to end violence.

Qasim al-Musawi, an Iraqi army spokesman, told a Baghdad press briefing on Saturday that attacks and killings in Baghdad had dropped by 80 per cent since the plan's launch.

"The morgue was receiving 40 to 50 bodies per day before and now has received only 20 in the last 48 hours," he said.

However, Rice's visit came as a twin car bombing killed at least 10 people and wounded 32 in a crowded market in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, police sources said on Saturday.

 'Need to deliver'

Rice met Iraq's prime minister. Nouri Maliki, the president, Jalal Talabani, and other leaders.

The US secretary of state she had hoped to press home to Iraqi officials that they needed to speed up efforts to reconcile Shia and Sunni groups, finalise an oil revenue sharing law and hold provincial elections.

"The wait for progress can't be endless. Those [issues] need to move along more quickly," she said.

"This is a group of leaders that need to deliver."

Rice was also briefed by US commander General David H Petraeus, who has just taken over as head of more than 150,000 multi-national forces in Iraq.

She will later travel to Jerusalem where she will hold talks with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, days after the Palestinians announced the formation of a new unity government.

Photo caption

Scene of bombing in Kirkuk