Rice says U.S. not trying to undermine Russia

The Bush administration thought it had secured the deal last summer when negotiators submitted a proposed agreement for higher approval; Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki rejected it and assembled a new set of negotiators. A key point of disagreement is Washington's insistence that U.S. troops in Iraq remain under U.S. legal jurisdiction indefinitely; the Iraqis want limited jurisdiction.

On a related matter, Rice was asked in the onboard interview whether the administration has decided to drop plans to establish a diplomatic outpost in Iran, with whom it has not had formal diplomatic relations for nearly 30 years.

"We continue to look at the idea," she said. "We think it's an interesting idea. We are going to take a look at it in light of what it could do for our relationship with the Iranian people. We are still looking at the idea."

Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan's autocratic ruler, has maintained a military alliance and close relations with Russia.

He also has kept a door open to the West and looked to develop new export routes to Europe for Kazakhstan's vast energy resources. But that balancing act has been in doubt since Russia's invasion of Georgia in August, which threatened to close off the corridor for pipelines around Russia.

Since Russian forces pushed close to Georgia's capital before pulling back, the Bush administration has tried to signal its commitment to countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Last month, Vice President Dick Cheney traveled to Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan, another important energy exporter in the region.

The administration does not want to be seen as the one "that lost Eurasia and the Caspian region," said Ariel Cohen, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington.

The United States also has sought to develop military ties with Kazakhstan as a regional power close to U.S. operations in Afghanistan. Kazakhstan's membership in a Russian-led Eurasian security bloc precludes the country from joining NATO. But it retains close contact with and regularly conducts joint military exercises with the Western alliance.

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Associated Press writer Desmond Butler in Washington contributed to this story.