New York: US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice is the "most powerful woman in Washington - black, brainy and (President George W) Bush's secret weapon". It was she, who along with Secretary of State Colin Powell, helped produce an United Nations (UN) resolution on weapons inspections in Iraq acceptable to members of the world body.

Powell and Rice worked closely together to produce a UN resolution on weapons inspections in Iraq that would have teeth, keep the hawks onboard-and still unanimously pass the Security Council, a media report said.

At the UN in September, US Ambassador John Negroponte crafted with the British some language that got French and Russian support. Then he sent the document to Washington.

When the hawks around Rumsfeld and Cheney were finished, the document was littered with traps designed to bring the inspection process to a quick end and trigger a war.

"We had been shown the outlines of a beautiful young girl. Now she had turned into this hag. Slowly, without directly confronting the hawks, Powell and Rice manoeuvred to find language acceptable to everybody," one Security Council diplomat was quoted by 'Newsweek' as saying.

Over the years, Rice has won the support of powerful men, the magazine said, adding that she often undertakes sensitive assignments on behalf of Bush.

When Vice-President Dick Cheney declared in August that a return of UN inspectors to Iraq could only bring "false comfort", it was Rice who was sent to have a quiet word with him about the speech, the magazine said in its upcoming cover story entitled "The Real Condi".

PTI