The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, are making surprise visits to Baghdad in a show of support for Iraq's new leadership.
The visit comes just days after Shia politician Jawad al-Maliki was chosen as prime minister.
Ms Rice arrived on a military plane from Turkey, breaking off from a tour of several European countries.
She said that a key focus of meetings she was due to have with US and Iraqi officials would be to ensure sectarianism did not influence the choice of leaders in Iraq's interior and other ministries.
Earlier this week, Mr Rumsfeld indicated that Washington intended to stick to plans to reduce the size of the US military presence, but he gave no specific numbers or a timetable.
