BAGHDAD — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived here Thursday on an unannounced visit to urge on Iraq's skittish government as it seeks to restore security and shape a new national order.
Rice, on a weeklong visit to the Mideast and Europe, said she hoped to accelerate Iraqi officials' efforts to craft agreements on key national issues, which she said could not be put off any longer amid raging sectarian fighting.
She told reporters on her plane en route to Iraq that U.S. officials intended to "support all the parties and, indeed, to press [them] to work toward a resolution quickly.... The security situation is not one that can be tolerated.... It is not helped by political inaction. That's a message that Prime Minister [Nouri] al Maliki is trying to send."
U.S. officials have been impatient for Maliki to begin making the tough decisions confronting the government. Since he was chosen during the spring to head the first permanent Iraqi government, Maliki has faced resistance from feuding factions.
This week, the government moved to suppress sectarian violence by suspending a police brigade of as many as 1,200 men suspected of complicity in recent violence against Sunni Arabs.
Meanwhile, the government is trying to figure out how to divide the nation's oil wealth, demobilize Shiite Muslim militias, rework the country's new constitution and deal with former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.
Rice praised the suspension of the police brigade as a "very positive thing" and said the government was "really starting to take action." She called Maliki a "very good and strong prime minister," and said he shared her "sense of urgency" about the need for action.
Her efforts to spur Iraq's leaders into action came amid growing fear in Washington that Maliki has not been decisive enough in cracking down on warring sects, some of which are backed by officials in Iraqi ministries.
Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Thursday that the U.S. should give Maliki two to three more months before considering a change in policy. His comments came after a trip to Iraq.
"It's hard to see this government beginning to seize the full reins of sovereignty, which we have given them," said Warner, who has long backed the Bush administration in the war. "You do not see them taking the levers of sovereignty and pulling and pushing them and doing what is necessary to bring about a situation in Iraq whereby the people are able to live."
