Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice Have Dinner Date

Clinton was invited to have dinner with Rice at Rice`s apartment in Washington`s exclusive Watergate complex.

Guess who was coming to dinner Monday evening at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's place? The woman nominated to succeed her as top U.S. diplomat: Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Clinton was invited to have dinner with Rice at Rice's apartment in Washington's exclusive Watergate complex, a State Department official said.

Earlier on Monday Clinton made her first visit to the State Department since Democratic President-elect Barack Obama named her as his choice for the next secretary of state, the official said.

Clinton spent several hours with members of the department's transition team, who had prepared a number of briefing books for her.

Rice has said Obama's choice of Clinton for the post was "terrific." If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Clinton will be the third woman to be secretary of state, after Rice and Madeleine Albright, who was appointed by Hillary Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, in the 1990s.

Susan Rice, Obama's nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, also visited the State Department on Monday and saw the transition team.