U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before making several stops on a tour of Asia and the Pacific next week, the State Department announced Thursday. “She will stop in Abu Dhabi for some meetings there” with her UAE counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan and possibly foreign ministers from other countries in the region, spokesman Sean McCormack said. President George W. Bush last week telephoned the UAE President, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, to thank him for his decision to forgive Iraq's debt and re-open the UAE embassy in Baghdad. Rice, who departs Washington on Sunday, also is expected to hold a meeting with Sheikh Khalifa, McCormack told reporters. --MORE
