By DPA
Baghdad : US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk Tuesday for a visit that had not been previously announced for security reasons, media reports said.
On her arrival, she held a closed-door meeting with local officials and representatives from the city’s ethnic communities, including those from Turkmen and Kurdish political parties, an official from Kirkuk province told the Voices of Iraq news agency.
Capital of the oil-rich province of the same name, Kirkuk is an ethnically divided city with long-simmering tensions between its Arab, Turkmen and Kurdish populaces, the latter of whom wish to see it incorporated into their autonomous region.
A referendum on the issue was due to be held in accordance with the Iraqi constitution by the end of 2007 but preparations hit a snag as disagreements over key problems, such as legislation on sharing oil resources, remain unresolved.
Kirkuk lies south of the Kurdish autonomous region, which currently comprises the provinces of Dohuk, Arbil and Sulaymanyah.
Rice is expected to meet Iraqi leaders in Baghdad later Tuesday.
She will urge them to intensify efforts aiming at achieving national reconciliation, according to al-Arabya news broadcaster.