Rice seeks Saudi help to stabilize Iraq

SHANNON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday she plans to ask Saudi Arabia to do more to help stabilize Iraq, encouraging it to influence Iraqi Sunnis to become more involved in the political process.

Speaking as she flew to the Middle East, Rice said she planned during her trip to talk to U.S. allies in the region about how they can assist the Iraqi and Lebanese governments as well as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Rice's trip to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian territories is her first journey to the region since a July visit at height of the war between Israel and Hizbollah militants in Lebanon.

During the trip, she plans to have a group meeting with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and the six Gulf Cooperation Council states -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.

"When Lebanon happened, I think (we) got in very stark relief a clear indication that there are extremist forces and moderate forces (in the Middle East)," she told reporters on the first leg of her trip.

"The countries that we are meeting ... is a group that you would expect to support the emerging moderate forces in Lebanon, in Iraq, and in the Palestinian territories," she added.

Saudi Arabia considers itself the bastion of mainstream Sunni Islam. But its support for Sunni tribes in Iraq is tempered by concern that Saudi Islamists who have gone to fight alongside insurgents could return to fight in Saudi Arabia.

"I want the Saudis' involvement in the stabilization of Iraq. I want the Saudis' involvement in the stabilization of Lebanon through resources and political support," she said.

During the war, Saudi Arabia placed $1 billion in Lebanon's central bank to help prop up the Lebanese pound, and made a separate donation of $500 million to help rebuild the battered country. Saudi businessmen lead a group of Arab investors who are trying to raise $2 billion for reconstruction and aid.

Saudi Arabia has helped support the Lebanese economy since 1990 and wants to maintain that role, partly to challenge the influence Iran exerts through its funding of Hizbollah.

"Saudi Arabia has a lot of standing with a number of the forces in Iraq and they have actually been very helpful in trying to get Sunnis involved in the election," Rice said.

"So I think it would be very helpful if they were supportive of, and working toward, helping Prime Minister (Nuri) al-Maliki's national reconciliation plan," she added.

"They can rally people around the national reconciliation government. They have a lot of contacts among the tribes."

"They have already been helpful. I'd like them to continue to be helpful," she added.

Saudi officials have expressed fears that sectarian violence in Iraq between Sunni groups and the Shi'ite-dominated government could spill over Iraq's borders into neighboring countries or lead to the break-up of the country.

Saudi militants loyal to Osama bin Laden launched their own violent campaign against the U.S.-allied Saudi rulers in 2003.

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