- First official visit: Hillary Clinton (AFP: Saul Loeb, file photo)
November 06, 2010 (KATAKAMI / ABC.NET.AU) --- Hillary Clinton will arrive in Australia later today on her first official visit since becoming the United States secretary of state.
Ms Clinton is on a two-week tour through the Asia-Pacific region and today will fly into Melbourne.
Her visit is part of the annual talks between the Australian foreign and defence ministers and the US secretaries of state and defence.
Those talks will take place on Monday and will focus on regional and global security issues, including the war in Afghanistan.
Tomorrow, Ms Clinton will meet Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The pair met briefly at last month's East Asia Summit in Vietnam.
Ms Clinton was due to visit Australia in January this year, but postponed her trip because of the devastating earthquakes in Haiti.
Meanwhile, Ms Clinton has ruled out running for president in 2012 or 2016, saying the United States should be ready for a woman president but it would not be her.
In interviews in New Zealand, the failed 2008 presidential candidate made clear she had no plans to run again despite talk - fueled partly by her fellow Democrats' losses in Tuesday's US mid-term elections - she might embark on a new race.
Asked by TV3 New Zealand whether she ruled out standing for the top US office through 2016, Ms Clinton, according to a US reporter, replied: "Oh yes, yes. I'm very pleased to be doing what I'm doing as secretary of state."
(MS)
