The United States held the highest-level contact with Syria in more than two years today during an international conference on Iraq and exchanged pleasantries with Iran's foreign minister.
The contacts took place in Egypt on the sidelines of the conference, dedicated to an International Compact to support Iraqi institutions in exchange for political reforms.
The meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh has so far won a trickle of debt relief for Iraq, but was largely overshadowed by rare US-Syrian and US-Iranian contacts.
Ms Rice held 30 minutes of talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem after Egypt's foreign minister escorted the Syrian into a room where Ms Rice had been meeting with the South Koreans, witnesses said.
"The meeting was frank and constructive. We discussed the situation in Iraq and how to achieve stability," Mr Moualem told reporters.
A US official had said that a meeting between Ms Rice and Mr Moualem would deal mainly with security on the Iraqi-Syrian border, not with Lebanon or attempts to prosecute those who killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in 2005.
The meeting marks an abrupt change in the policy of US President George W Bush, who stopped contacts with Syria on the grounds that Damascus had not complied with US demands.
The United States has accused Syria of allowing foreign fighters to enter Iraq through the long border and is pushing for an international tribunal to try suspects in the killing of Mr Hariri.
A UN investigation has implicated Lebanese and Syrian security officials in the killing but Damascus denies all the charges.
On the Iranian front, Ms Rice and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki briefly exchanged pleasantries during lunch but did not discuss politics, a US spokesman said without clarifying whether any further contacts could take place.
"They said hello. It was not about substance," said US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. A US official who asked not to be named has said any encounters between Ms Rice and Mr Mottaki would not tackle substance, in accordance with the wishes of the Iranian side.