Rice delays trip to Vietnam to attend Iraq meetings

WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has postponed her departure to Vietnam for an Asia-Pacific gathering to attend US government meetings on Iraq, the State Department said today.

Rice will leave for Hanoi tomorrow, a day later than planned, to attend internal meetings on Iraq at the State Department as well as Iraq-related talks at the White House tomorrow, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

He said Rice's decision was not related to her 1:05 p m (2335 IST) meeting at the White House today with the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan panel charged with coming up with recommendations on how to bring peace to Iraq.

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