Rice, al-Maliki avoid each other at UN meet

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UNITED NATIONS, SEPT 23 (AP): US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki kept a polite distance as they attended a group meeting and avoided discussion of a Baghdad shootout involving guards from a US company protecting American diplomats.
With tensions soaring over the Sept. 16 incident, Rice and al-Maliki chose not to speak directly at a United Nations gathering Saturday at which they were among senior diplomats and officials from Iraq's neighbours, including Iran and Syria, weighing future assistance to Iraq.
Neither Rice nor al-Maliki brought up the matter in the broader talks, according to David Satterfield, the US State Department's coordinator for Iraq, who said testily that the two also did not meet separately on the sidelines and that the incident had not been on the agenda.