Rice makes unannounced visit to Kirkuk

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit Tuesday to the city that Iraq's Kurds call their Jerusalem, an oil-rich territory claimed by many where the United States says it sees new signs of cooperation and progress. Rice was meeting members of a civilian-military reconstruction unit based in Kirkuk and provincial politicians of all stripes. She meets Iraq's central leadership later in Baghdad. Such reconstruction units were expanded along with the escalation of American forces that US President George W. Bush ordered this year.