BAGHDAD — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit today to Kirkuk in the oil-rich Kurdish region, where the U.S. administration has emphasizing what it sees as new signs of cooperation and progress, and then flew to the Iraqi capital for meetings with national leaders.

At Rice's first stop in Kirkuk, she met with members of a civilian-military reconstruction unit based in Kirkuk and with about two-dozen provincial politicians of all stripes.

"It is an important province for the future of Iraq, for a democratic Iraq, an Iraq that can be for all people," she said at the start of the meeting with the provincial leaders.

Sunni Arabs ended a yearlong political boycott earlier this month in Kirkuk — the hub of Iraq's northern oil fields — under a deal that sets aside government posts for Arabs. It was the biggest step yet toward unity ahead of a referendum on the future.

MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin assured his political party Monday that Russia's age of Putin is far from over, pledging to accept an offer of the prime minister's post when he leaves the presidency next year.Putin, whose power still seems ascendant, finally settled on one of his many post-presidential political options, which had ranged from altering the Russian constitution so he could run again to outright retirement.The Russian president has pledged to accept a job that is, at least on paper, a demotion — perhaps confident of the power conferred by his enormous popularity and by the loyalty of the fellow KGB veterans he placed in many of the Kremlin's most important jobs.Putin, 55, presented his decision in a speech to leaders of the United Russia party, shortly before they voted to nominate the president's longtime protege, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, as their candidate in the March 2 presidential contest.With the support of Putin and the Kremlin's tight control over the nation's media and political landscape, Medvedev appears certain to win.After Putin endorsed Medvedev's presidential bid last week, the 42-year-old St. Petersburg-educated lawyer urged Putin to serve as his prime minister if he is elected.Many here believe Putin would remain the real leader of Russia, whatever his title. But the incumbent pledged not to undermine his successor by strengthening the prime minister's job and weakening Russia's strong presidential system.