Rice to visit Britain over Afghanistan issue

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to visit Britain on issues of Afghanistan, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Friday.

Rice will leave Washington Tuesday for talks the next day with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband about Afghanistan as well as Iraq and Iran, McCormack told reporters.

It was generally believed that during her stay in London, Rice would urge Britain and other NATO allies to beef up their role in peacekeeping mission in the war-torn Afghanistan.

Washington has been expecting the international community, especially its NATO allies, to send more troops and equipment into insurgency-wracked Afghanistan.

"I won't make a secret of the fact that we are encouraging all of our NATO allies to do everything they can in terms of contributing resources," McCormack said.

There are about 40,000 NATO and 29,000 U.S.-led coalition force soldiers in Afghanistan at present.