Convinced that oil revenue is the long-term key to economic independence for a unified Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appealed Friday for cooperation from the autonomous and oil rich Kurdish north. Rice was visiting the region's powerful president, Massoud Barzani, less than two weeks after the regional government threatened to break away from Iraq in a dispute over oil, the Associated Press reported. Rice's two-day trip to Iraq is meant to show U.S. support for the country's fragile central government, under assault by a spiral of sectarian violence and growing calls for autonomy among Iraq's regions.
