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Politics

Rice and Maliki keep their distance

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki kept a polite distance Saturday as they attended a group meeting and avoided discussion of a Baghdad shootout involving guards from Blackwater USA protecting American diplomats.

With tensions soaring over the Sept. 16 incident, Rice and Maliki chose not to speak directly at a United Nations gathering at which they were among senior diplomats and officials from Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria, weighing future assistance to Iraq.

Neither Rice nor Maliki brought up the matter in the broader talks, according to David Satterfield, the State Department's coordinator for Iraq, who said that the two did not meet separately on the sidelines and that the incident had not been on the agenda.

It was not clear when the last time Rice and Maliki have been in such close proximity and not spoken face to face. Satterfield said after the meeting that Rice had already spoken by phone with Maliki about the matter.

The presence of Rice and Maliki at the same meeting here was the closest high-level encounter between the governments since the incident and since Rice on Friday announced a full review of State Department security in Iraq.

Maliki and President Bush are to meet this week on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly.

[Last modified September 23, 2007, 01:36:22]