Baghdad, April 2 (Reuters): US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and Britain’s Jack Straw flew to Baghdad today and pressed Iraqi politicians to break their deadlock and form a unity government that can halt a slide to civil war.

“The Iraqi people are losing patience,” Rice said after meeting Sunni, Shia and Kurdish leaders. On the delay of nearly four months in forming a government since elections, she said she had told them: “Your international allies want to see this done.”

Pressure on Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari looked almost irresistible as a leader of the biggest party in his ruling Shi’ite Alliance joined others in publicly breaking ranks and calling on him to step aside in the name of national consensus.

Though they refused to say so in public, it was a message which appeared to have been conveyed, too, by Rice and foreign secretary Straw. Minority Sunni and Kurdish leaders insist they will not join a cabinet under Jaafari and want a different Shia nominee.

At stake is the future of an Iraq that Rice said remained “vulnerable” to sectarian civil war three years after the US and British invasion. Two US crew were presumed dead today after the crash of their helicopter, which the US military said was probably shot down by insurgents.

The chill was palpable when Rice and the embattled Jaafari exchanged small talk on a rainstorm raging outside as reporters looked on. The smiles were frosty, the body language awkward.

No breakthrough is likely to be announced during the two-day trip, officials said ? both Iraqi leaders and their visitors are anxious not to give the impression that Washington and London are imposing a new leader over Jaafari.