US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai at the press conference. Rice arrived here Thursday morning on her first visit to Afghanistan for talks on rebuilding the country, terror and drug. (Photo: Xinhua/REUTERS)

(Photo: Xinhua/REUTERS)

Afghanistan 's Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah (R) meets U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the foreign ministry in Kabul, Afghanistan March 17, 2005. (Photo: Xinhua/AFP)

    KABUL, March 17 (Xinhuanet) -- US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived here Thursday morning on her first visit to Afghanistan for talks on rebuilding the country, terror and drug.

    Rice is to meet President Hamid Karzai, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, and top American diplomats and military officials.

    Earlier she hailed Afghanistan's success in holding its first presidential elections last October, which passed off without feared bloodshed, and its preparations for parliamentary polls later this year.

    "We'll continue to talk with the Afghans about reconstruction, about building an economy there, because that can be self-sustainable... about the problems that they continue to face continuing in the war on terror."

    Afghanistan, ranked 173 out of 178 countries by a recent UN development survey, is desperately poor after two and a half decades of war. Most of the population gets by on a little over two dollars a day. Enditem