The United States wants Iraq to remain whole now that the first round of elections is over, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. She also said Israel and the Palestinians should control their own path to peace, with help from Middle East nations and others. The United States does not need to take a leading role now, Rice said Saturday. "When our involvement needs to take on a different character, we will do precisely that," Rice said en route to Ankara, last stop on this leg of her European and Middle East trip. She goes to Al-Quds city on Sunday, and the West Bank the following day for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and newly elected Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Later in her first trip abroad as President Bush (news - web sites)'s new chief diplomat, Rice returns to Europe for stops in Italy, France, Belgium and Luxembourg. Some of the European stops pave the way for Bush's own European trip later this month. Rice was to meet Sunday with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. She saw Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday. "I'm here really in part to say to the Turks that we are fully committed, fully committed, to a unified Iraq," Rice said aboard the plane to Turkey. "We are making that message clear through all channels that we have in Iraq."
