(2 Apr 2006) SHOTLIST
POOL
1. Mid of security waiting by plane's door at Baghdad airport
2. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw getting off plane at Baghdad airport
Al-Iraqiya
3. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (seated on right)
4. Rice listening
5. Talabani speaking
6. Mid shot of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Rice with delegates
7. Straw seated next to delegate
8. Various wide shots of meeting
POOL
9. Rice and Straw walking in to meet Iraqi Prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari
10. Rice, Straw and US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad greeted by Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari
11. Pan of Khalilzad, Straw, Rice and al-Jaafari during photo-op
12. Pan from Rice to Straw to wide of them with al-Jafaari
13. Close-up of al-Jafaari
14. Zoom-out from Straw and Rice to wide of meeting
15. Rice with Supreme Council For Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) head Abdul Aziz al-Hakim
16. Pan from al-Hakim to Rice
17. Straw shaking hands with al-Hakim
18. Wide of (from left to right) Rice, al-Hakim and Straw at photo-op
19. Various of Rice and Straw meeting with Iraqi Foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari (next to Rice)
STORYLINE
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw made a surprise trip to Iraq on Sunday to prod the country's leaders to end nearly four months of wrangling and form a new government.
The two had flown overnight from Britain to Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, for meetings with members of the current interim government including President Jalal Talabani, Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and other ethnic and religious power brokers.
After talks with the Iraqi president, Rice, Straw and the US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, met with Iraq's embattled prime minister.
They also met Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Council For Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and later with Iraqi Foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari.
The British diplomat was making his third trip to Iraq this year. Rice was last in Iraq in November.
The surprise visit comes amid growing pressure on al-Jaafari to step aside as the Shiite nominee for a second term to break the stalemate in the talks.
Straw said during a mid flight press briefing that the choice of leaders was up to Iraqis alone but added there was international concern about the time it was taking for the formation of a new government.
But neither he nor Rice disguised the blunt nature of their mission.
Elections were held in December but talks since then among Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders have stalled, partly because of opposition to al-Jaafari's re-nomination as head of state by the Shiite bloc.
US officials believe the formation of a government of national unity will help to calm Iraq's insurgency and restore order three years after the US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.
The US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, is urging the Iraqis to speed up the process in order to avoid civil war.
Britain is Washington's closest ally in the three-year-old war and stations the second largest number of troops in the country after the United States.
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