U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's top deputy arrived in Iraq on Wednesday on an unannounced mission to meet with the country's newly elected leaders, the second high-ranking Bush administration official to drop in this week. Robert Zoellick's one-day visit follows a trip to Iraq by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday. "Dimensions of our Iraqi strategy have to have political and economic _ complete reconstruction _ components as well as a military component," Zoellick told reporters Tuesday while traveling to the Middle East. Rice had dispatched one of her senior advisers to Iraq shortly after she took office to assess its pressing needs and recommend a course of action. Zoellick said since then the United States has been seeking more cooperation on reconstruction with its allies, particularly European countries _ "in a sense, evolving the nature of coalition support for an Iraqi government." Until now, U.S. allies have mostly focused on military assistance. Although he acknowledged the political and economic challenges facing Iraq, Zoellick said "the pieces are coming together" even though the country still is "suffering pangs of violence." "One shouldn't underestimate how quickly and effectively Iraqi leaders have taken to democratic politics," Zoellick said.
