U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday arrived in the tsunami-hit island of Phuket, southern Thailand, where she will visit an American-sponsored disaster relief project and hold bilateral talks with the Thai government, dpa reported. Rice, arriving from Beijing, was greeted at Phuket International Airport by Thai traditional dancers before being escorted to her hotel amid tight security. On Monday morning she is scheduled to hold talks with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra before taking a helicopter to neighbouring Bang Sak district in Phang Nga province to open a U.S.-sponsored school for Thai children orphaned by the December 26 tsuanmi that killed 5,400 people, half of them international tourists, in Thailand's six provinces on the andaman sea coast. Rice is on a four-nation Asia tour that first took her to China. In Beijing Rice said North Korea's agreement to resume stalled six-nation talks was only a "first step" and that the "real issue" would be to make progress in negotiating an end to its controversial nuclear weapons programme. --More 2257 Local Time 1957 GMT
