(6:25 p.m. EDT)

SECRETARY RICE: Good evening. I am delighted to welcome my colleague, Foreign Secretary David Miliband. David, welcome.

We've had a very good and extensive discussion. Of course, the United States and Great Britain share so many interests, but of course most importantly we share the deepest of values. And we have talked about a range of issues, including our common desire to see the situation in northern Iraq resolved in a peaceful manner. And we've talked about our common desire to see an end to the terrorism that the PKK has been perpetrating against Turkey. It is the policy of the United States that Iraq should not be a place where the territory can be used as any kind of sanctuary for terrorist activity. We have both been very actively involved diplomatically and we have had a chance to share some of our common efforts in that regard.

We've talked about a number of other issues. We're going to continue over dinner. But, David, welcome. It's great to have you here.

FOREIGN SECRETARY MILIBAND: Great. Thank you very much, Condi. We've spoken on the phone twice in the last 24 hours and --

SECRETARY RICE: Yes.

FOREIGN SECRETARY MILIBAND: But there's no substitute for face-to-face discussion. I won't add to what you've said about the situation in northern Iraq, and the situation is obviously of deep concern to us as well. It has been very good that we have had a chance also to have a brief word about the situation in Kosovo and the important issues there. And I'm very much looking forward to further discussions about your experience in the Middle East last week where your visit was so important.

This is the single most important bilateral relationship for the United Kingdom. It is founded on deep values but also a real sense of the way in which our interests are closely combined. And I'm very much looking forward to taking this relationship forward.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, do you think that you have enough oversight of private security contractors in Iraq, and do you plan to recommend some sort of unified control for over all private security details in Iraq, some perhaps along the lines of what Secretary Gates has suggested he's already thinking of?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, thank you, Anne. I met this morning with the expert panel, the outside panel that has reviewed this situation for me. And I want to thank Ambassador Stapleton Roy, General George Joulwan and Mr. Eric Boswell for their help, and Pat Kennedy, who has been the person here from the Department who has worked with them.

I have received the report. I am reviewing the recommendations. They fall into a number of categories, including issues of oversight and coordination, rules of engagement, et cetera. I believe that the recommendations point a very good way forward and I intend to act on them expeditiously. Obviously, I will want to sit with Bob Gates and discuss how we will carry out better coordination, how we can make certain that the United States Government moves this forward with one voice. And Bob and I will have a chance to do that when he returns from his travels. But I do intend to implement recommendations really very quickly because it's been a very good panel report, and I want to thank them all for their help.

QUESTION: He doesn't get back until the end of the week. So do you --

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think we should sit down face-to-face and discuss it. I've been traveling and now he's traveling. There are some recommendations that I've already implemented and there are others that I may be able to implement unilaterally because they relate only to the State Department. But it's very important that Bob and I have a chance to discuss it, and we will.

QUESTION: Robert Nesbit from Sky News. The PKK has announced -- this is for the Foreign Secretary -- the PKK has announced ceasefires before and rarely observed them. How can you convince the Turkish Prime Minister that this time it will be different?

FOREIGN SECRETARY MILIBAND: Robert, you're absolutely right to say that words are not going to be sufficient. There need to be real deeds. The hurt and anguish of the Turkish people is real and evident to anyone who looks at the situation.

Condi and I have been on the phone both to people in Turkey -- I was speaking to the Foreign Minister just before I came to this meeting today -- and obviously also to the Government of Iraq. The role of the Iraqi Government in Baghdad and in northern Iraq, the Kurdish authority there, is absolutely key. And as you will see from the quite detailed joint statement that we've both put out tonight, Condi and I, you will see that we are absolutely determined to ensure that there are real deeds that allow the Turkish Government to say to their own people that the international community, and critically the Iraqi Government, are taking this issue with the seriousness that it deserves. And if the trilateral process involving the United States can also engage, that can only be a good thing in building the right sort of partnerships to take this forward.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, what beyond putting pressure on the Kurdish government to work closely with the Turks can the U.S. do? Is urging enough? The Turks say they're looking for specific U.S. action, significant U.S. action, perhaps joint U.S. military/Turkish intelligence cooperation. Could you talk about specific steps that the U.S. could do?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we have a mechanism, a trilateral mechanism to which David referred, and that obviously is the right forum to discuss specific steps. I might just note that this issue was discussed this morning with the President, so we're taking this very, very seriously. And I won't speculate. I don't want to speculate about what we might do except to say that the United States is determined to work with our allies in Iraq and to work with our allies in Turkey to try and deal with what is a very difficult situation of terrorism from a fairly remote part of northern Iraq. And it requires information sharing. It requires a great deal of coordination. But I'm quite certain that we can sit down and we can work this together if there is enough political will.

One of the things that you will notice in the statement that David and I have issued is that we do take note of the comments and the statements of the Iraqi Government. We also expect that the Iraqi Government is going to follow that up with coordination and with real efforts. And so we'll be talking about this. I don't want to speculate about what specifically we might do, but this is an issue of deep concern to the United States.

QUESTION: A question for both of you. There have been some frictions recently in this special relationship since the speech by Mark Malloch Brown and Douglas Alexander. I wondered if you talked about this and how your meeting might be working towards rebuilding bridges.

FOREIGN SECRETARY MILIBAND: Well, Condi can speak obviously for herself, but I have found over the hundred or so days that I've been in office that the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is very deep and very strong and getting stronger. And the experience of the last three months or so is of a real shared sense that this is an important moment in history when allies have to work together very, very closely. And as you look around the world at some of the key challenges, challenges that bear very, very strongly on Condi Rice's shoulders, they're challenges that we want to work very closely with her in meeting them. And whether you look at the Middle East, including in Iraq, whether you look at the important issues in Pakistan or whether you look at the issues in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Western Balkans and the relationship with Russia, those are all areas where the fact is that Britain and the United States are working very, very closely together. And this is not a relationship marked by frictions. It is a relationship marked by a real sense of shared and common purpose.

SECRETARY RICE: I can only add that I agree completely. No, we didn't have a discussion of what you've mentioned, the speeches that you mentioned. Unnecessary to have such a discussion. And as to bridges being rebuilt, I don't think bridges were ever cut, so you don't have to rebuild something that has never been cut. We have -- David and I -- developed over his time in office a really quite warm and very collegial relationship, and it is not surprising then that one of the first phone calls would have been between the two of us when the situation in Iraq -- from northern Iraq -- became more acute yesterday. And that's just emblematic of what happens when you have as close an ally as Great Britain. And so I expect that that's always going to be one of the first phone calls that he makes or that I make.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

FOREIGN SECRETARY MILIBAND: Okay, thanks very much. Thank you.

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