U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Iraq on Sunday in a bid to reach out to minority Sunnis, as authorities said they had found the bodies of 34 men killed by guerrillas.

During the surprise visit, Rice said she wanted to move the political process ahead and undercut the insurgency that is being led by Sunni Arabs. Guerrilla attacks have killed more than 400 people since the new cabinet was named on April 28.

After talks with Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, Rice praised the new government saying: "We were impressed with your leadership of this democratically elected government and we know that you will be a strong leader."

Rice and Jaafari discussed a wide range of issues, including the need to boost Iraqi security forces and establish an "inclusive" government that respects the views of Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis.

Rice's trip coincided with a New York Times report that U.S. contacts with Sunni Arab leaders showed that many want to participate in Iraq's political process and help write its new constitution, according to administration officials

Rice said there had been progress in building Iraq security forces but again refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of the 138,000 U.S. troops currently in Iraq.

"We talked about accelerating the process of building the security forces" and "raising the level of the services in the country," Jaafari said.

As she made her visit the discovery of bodies and a new string of attacks underlined the severity of the security crisis.

Thirty-four corpses of men shot dead, beheaded or with their throats cut were discovered at the weekend across Iraq, medical and security sources said.

Thirteen bodies were found in the impoverished Baghdad Shiite district of Sadr City, an Interior Ministry source said, while 11 more were discovered in the town of Iskandariyya, south of Baghdad.

And the Defense Ministry said that 10 soldiers, all with their throats cut, had been found close to the town of Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

Bloody attacks continued Sunday morning in Baghdad with gunmen shooting dead a close aide to Shiite religious leader Ayatollah Ali Sistani, police said.

Bombers also struck twice Sunday morning in the insurgent stronghold of Baaqouba, north of Baghdad, killing at least four Iraqis and wounding 17.

Rice, the most senior U.S. official to visit since Jaafari formed his government, arrived at midday in Irbil in northern Iraq to meet with Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani before moving on to Baghdad.

Asked about the importance of drafting a new constitution by an Aug. 15 deadline, Rice said: "Things do not happen overnight. Iraq is emerging from a long national nightmare of tyranny into freedom."

She added: "What's really important here is that when they sit down to work on this constitution, that all Iraqis believe that their interests are going to be represented."

Jaafari said he wanted the drafting of the constitution to be "an inclusive process" that involved Sunnis Arabs as much as possible. "We will try to find ways to have a bigger Sunni participation," he said.

Meanwhile, U.S. administration officials said they were checking a British newspaper report that militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been wounded in Iraq.

"We've seen these reports before. We can't confirm it at this point," National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told Fox News television.

A doctor who claims to have treated Zarqawi told an Iraqi reporter in the western city of Ramadi that Zarqawi was bleeding heavily when he was brought into the hospital on Wednesday, the Sunday Times reported.

The doctor's claim was supported Saturday by a senior Iraqi commander who had been to Ramadi to investigate the report, the newspaper added.

In a separate case, the governor of the western Anbar Province was released after having been held by rebels for six days.