Washington  - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday she has been in talks with her counterparts over how to address the growing spate of piracy off the Somali coast.

Rice said the problem has emerged as a critical issue as she leaves office when President George W Bush's term ends January 20, taking note of the long history of piracy by referring to the first man who held her job, from 1789 to 1793.

"Thomas Jefferson came in worried about pirates, it looks like I'm going to leave worried about pirates," Rice said.

Washington  - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on African nations to take more steps to pressure Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to reach a political deal with the opposition.

Mugabe appears to be breaking his promise to form a power-sharing agreement with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the wake of disputed elections earlier this year, Rice said.

"It is shortsighted on the part of the region to let this continue, because it looks to me as if what Mugabe is doing is that he is pulling as much power into his own hands as he possibly can," Rice said. "MDC, I think, is being squeezed out and intimidated. And what started out as power-sharing talks don't look very promising."

Washington  - Iraq's proposal to hold a referendum next year on a security agreement with the United States does not mean implementation of the deal will be delayed, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday.

The Iraqi parliament is poised to approve the security agreement but have attacked plans to hold the national referendum in July. The UN mandate for the presence of US troops expires at the end of this year, but Rice said the pact allows the US military to stay in the interim.

Washington  - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed on Wednesday that Washington was looking to establish a diplomatic post in Iran but concluded that the decision should be left to the next president.

"At this late moment, I think it is probably better that this decision be left to the next administration," Rice said, less than two months ahead of president-elect Barack Obama's inauguration.

Washington  - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to Brussels next week for a NATO meeting and will make stops in Britain, Italy, Finland and Denmark during the six-day trip, the US State Department said Monday.

The NATO gathering of foreign ministers December 2-3 will likely focus on the war in Afghanistan and the expansion of the alliance to former Soviet states, including Ukraine and Georgia.

Plans to eventually allow those two countries into NATO has angered Moscow, which sees the expansion of NATO closer to Russian borders as a threat. Washington strongly backs membership for Georgia and Ukraine.

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