Rice: Iraq gov't can prevail over violence

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday she is certain Iraq's new leaders can prevail over "determined killers" like those who killed 41 people over the weekend.

Likewise, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said an increase in violence does not mean the security situation cannot be contained,

"There has been a spike ... in sectarian violence," Negroponte said. "But I certainly wouldn't use the term 'out of control.'"

Negroponte commented in response to questions after a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Rice spoke before a meeting at the State Department with Pakistani Foreign Minister Kursheed Kasuri.

"No one could have expected that just within weeks of coming to power that the Iraqi government would have been able to stop the violence and to completely address a difficult security situation," Rice said.

The Bush administration has said the permanent democratic government that took power in Baghdad this spring offers the best hope for quelling rising sectarian violence and ending the anti-government and anti-American insurgency.

"There are determined killers there, determined people who really do want to make life difficult and to arrest the democratic progress that Iraq is making," Rice said. "But I'm quite certain that the combination of a strong government and the security forces that are now engaged in the security plan for Baghdad will be able to bring this situation under control."

Negroponte, asked if American companies could feel safe doing business in Iraq, told the audience of government and business leaders that business opportunities "are probably quite limited" until the security situation is stabilized. But in areas such as engineering and construction, the opportunities are substantial, he suggested.

The two officials' comments came on another day of violence in Iraq that included car bombings and an armed ambush of a bus in Baghdad. The attacks are the latest in a wave of sectarian strife that was sparked by the February bombing of Shiite mosque in Samarra.

Negroponte, the former ambassador to Baghdad who now serves as President Bush's top intelligence official, said the violence requires close attention.

Yet he said he has been encouraged by the formation of a permanent democratic government in Iraq, the demise of terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and efforts to build Iraqi military and police forces.

The violence, he noted, has been confined to specific areas of Iraq.

"You are talking about a security challenge in Baghdad and in al-Anbar province and in parts of the Sunni triangle," he told reporters. "The government has a plan to try to restore security in the key cities of Baghdad and Basra, and they are working on that."

In Iraq, Sunni leaders expressed outrage over the weekend killings; most of the victims were Sunnis.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, appealed for calm, warning that the nation stood "in front of a dangerous precipice."

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, has set the improvement of security in an increasingly lawless Baghdad as an early test of his administration.

U.S.-led forces are supporting Iraqis in carrying out al-Maliki's security plan. Eventually, the Bush administration hopes that al-Maliki can assert enough political and security control to allow the withdrawal of most of the more than 130,000 U.S. forces in Iraq more than three years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.

"It is obvious that, for many people, they believe that if you can disrupt Baghdad, you can kill democracy in Iraq," White House press secretary Tony Snow said.

"It is also obvious that it is U.S. policy, and also the policy of Prime Minister Maliki, that that is not going to happen, that they will bring resources to bear to make sure that everything from roving gangs to insurgents who are determined to incite sectarian strife — that they do not succeed."