U.S. Secretary Of State Rice Due In Ankara

ANKARA - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will come to Ankara on Friday morning to hold a series of talks.
Rice will be received by President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. She is also scheduled to meet Foreign Minister Ali Babacan.
Later, Rice will proceed to Istanbul to attend the international conference on Iraq.
Meanwhile, Sean McCormack, spokesman for the U.S. Department of State, said at the daily press briefing, "Rice will discuss with the Turkish authorities her views, her ideas, the views of our government on how we can make more effective the existing mechanisms that we have with the Turkish government and the Iraqi government and the U.S. government playing a role and talking about Turkey's needs in terms of defending itself."