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Rice to Meet With Syrian FM

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet Syria's foreign minister Thursday in the first high-level talks between the two countries in years, a U.S. official said.

But a substantive meeting between the United States and Iran — another staunch U.S. Mideast foe — appeared less certain.

"We expect that there will be a discussion between Secretary of State Rice and the Syrian foreign minister about Iraqi security issues," said a senior State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was still being arranged.

Both the United States and Iran also had spoken favorably of a possible meeting, but the chances for that remained unclear, and neither side had commented publicly on any immediate arrangements.

The confirmation of the Syrian meeting came as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki opened the conference by calling on all countries to forgive his country's foreign debts.

But Saudi Arabia's foreign minister made no immediate public pledge — saying only that his country was in talks with Iraq and would consider such forgiveness.

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UPDATES:

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