PERTH, July 25: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had a taste of life in the Australian mining boomtown of Perth on Friday, sipping coffee with the foreign minister at his local and chatting with girls about shopping.

Rice told a group of teenage girls that her favourite past-time was shopping — also a favourite activity for many women in Perth which has just seen luxury jeweller Tiffany’s open a store in the isolated Indian Ocean city now awash with money thanks to Australia’s outback mining boom.

In fact, Perth’s booming economy has attracted a swag of luxury retailers including Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Bally.

On a visit to Perth at the invitation of Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, Rice met Smith’s parents at Cino’s coffee shop to the surprise of locals and under the gaze of a dozen or so diplomatic security agents.

Rice is only the second US Secretary of State to visit Perth, with most US diplomats choosing the east coast cities of Sydney or Canberra as their usual diplomatic stops. George Shultz was the last top US diplomat to stop by Perth in 1984.

As the first female and black Secretary of State, Rice dispensed advice to pupils at Smith’s daughter’s school, Mercedes College, telling them to follow their dreams and not be restricted by either race or ethnicity.

“Don’t let anyone put limits on you,” she said.

Rice also admitted her passion for shopping and said she was looking forward to getting back to private life and returning to California where there was a giant shopping mall about five minutes form her home in Stanford.

“I love to shop ... even if I don’t buy anything,” said Rice. “I am looking forward to getting back to shopping. It is a great past time, she added.

She also shared her love for exercise, telling students she got up at 4.30 am every day to do her morning workout and urging them to keep fit and learn a foreign language. “The first time I heard the Russian language it was like falling in love,” Rice told the students, to giggles.

She also divulged that President George Bush had a good sense of humour and one lesson she took from him was to nurture your friends from long ago.

The top US diplomat fielded the usual questions over whether she would like to run for US president one day. “I am really not someone who would like to be in life as an elected official,” she said, squashing speculation she has hopes of either being a running mate for Republican John McCain or run a bid for the White House herself one day.—Reuters