WASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad in his "private capacity" on Tuesday, the State Department said, in a sign of U.S. flexibility on dealing with non-Hamas ministers of the unity government.

State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said Rice had dropped in on a meeting the pro-Western finance minister was having with David Welch, the State Department's point person on Israeli-Palestinian issues.

"He (Fayyad) was there in his private capacity," said Cooper and not as a member of the unity government. "They discussed some of the issues that Fayyad is undertaking," he added, refusing to disclose further details of the discussions at the State Department.

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