Rice urges Kurds to work for peaceful, unified Iraq

Rice dropped in on Kurdish regional president Massud Barzani in Arbil, his northern capital, after an unannounced visit to the Iraqi capital Baghdad, which is in the grip of a brutal sectarian conflict.

"The Kurdish people will ... certainly be better served if Baghdad and its surrounding areas are stable and democratic," Rice told reporters at a joint press conference with Barzani.

"We had a very good discussion about the national reconciliation process and the vision of unified democratic Iraq that is stable, that is at peace and at peace with its neighbours," she said.

Grateful for US support in throwing off the yoke of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Kurds have put their long-cherished dreams of independence on hold while the Baghdad government struggles to rebuild the war torn country.

But separatist tensions are never far from the surface, and fierce rows have recently erupted over the banning of Iraq's national flag in the north and the Kurdish government's determination to develop its own oil industry.

Washington fears a Kurdish declaration of independence would accelerate the possible disintegration of Iraq and knows it would be bound to anger regional ally Turkey, which has a restive Kurdish minority of its own.

The sensitivity of the situation was on display even at the media conference, where Rice and Barzani stood in front of US and Kurdish flags, while the Iraqi national flag, which the Kurdish leader has banned, was nowhere to be seen.

"Kurdistan, as any other nation, has the right to self-determin-ation," said Barzani, adding however that "the parliament of Kurdistan has adopted, within the framework of a democratic Iraq, the federal system."