US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held talks with Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on the fight against terror and reforms in his country Saturday on the latest stage of a North Africa tour.
   
The pair had a "very good and extensive discussion," Rice told journalists afterwards.
   
"We talked about internal matters here in Tunisia, about the course of reform," she said, adding, "we obviously discussed the circumstances here in the region in terms of security and counterterrorism."
   
Rice arrived in Tunis from Tripoli where she was the first US secretary of state to visit for 55 years, meeting Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi to seal a rapprochement between their two countries.
   
The United States has key military ties with Tunisia and is also seeking to conclude a free trade accord with the Maghreb nation.
   
But human rights groups have frequently criticised Ben Ali's iron-fisted rule over Tunisia, and expressed fears of ill-treatment of Tunisians repatriated after being held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay.
   
"We're good friends and we can have very good and intense discussions about internal and external matters, and that's the way that it has been," Rice said.
   
She said she had raised in particular "the extraordinary role of women in Tunisia," adding, "Women have made great progress here."
   
Rice had been greeted on arrival at the El Aouina military base near Tunis by Tunisian Foreign Minister Abdelwaheb Abdallah, with whom she was also to have talks.
   
But a planned visit to a cemetery for US dead from World War II before Rice left for her next stop of Algeria was cancelled. She will also go to Morocco.
   
The United States gives technical assistance to the Tunisian army as the two countries have longstanding "strategic" ties. They held joint manoeuvres in May at the Bizerte naval and air base and in the Mediterranean.
   
The two countries are also in preliminary talks for a free trade accord. Bilateral trade is estimated at about 600 million dollars a year. US firms make substantial investments in the Tunisian oil and energy sector.