Sometimes touted as a contender for the Republican vice-presidential slot, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has aired her thoughts on race in the United States, a prominent issue in the presidential election campaign.

Rice, the top ranking African-American in President George W. Bush’s cabinet, told The Washington Times she had watched Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama’s major speech on race last week.

“I think it was important that he (Obama) gave it for a whole host of reasons,” said Rice in a transcript of the interview released by the State Department on Friday.

Obama would be the first black US president if he wins the Democratic nomination and beats Republican candidate John McCain in the November election to succeed Bush.

Obama’s speech — which he gave after a storm of criticism over racially charged sermons by the black pastor of his church — spoke of a racial stalemate in the United States and a need to heal racial wounds.

While saying repeatedly she did not want to talk about the election campaign — “I don’t do politics” — and also reiterating her lack of interest in the vice presidential slot, Rice said the United States had a hard time dealing with racial issues.

“There is a paradox for this country and a contradiction of this country and we still haven’t resolved it,” she said in a detailed reply to questions about Obama and race issues as a whole before next week’s 40th anniversary of the slaying of civil rights leader Marin Luther King.

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