US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk for an unannounced visit. Rumsfeld is said to make a first-hand assessment of the military and political situation in the country. He arrived just after daybreak with a plane that flew in from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. It is Rumsfeld's first visit as defence secretary to Kirkuk, the centre of Iraq's northern oilfields. Meanwhile Saturday, US overseer Paul Bremer has insisted that there is no place in the new Iraq for militia forces, knocking down support among the interim Governing Council for setting up such a force.

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