Briefing Skipper: Afghanistan, START, Iran, North Korea, Chelsea's nuptials

In which we scour the transcript of the State Department's daily presser so you don't have to. Here are the highlights of Monday's press briefing by Department Spokesman (and OSCE representative nominee) Ian Kelly:

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Monday to discuss Afghanistan, Asia, and climate change. Later Monday she went to New York to receive an award at the Amsterdam News Educational Fund 100th Anniversary Gala and she also received the Eisenhower Award from Business Executives for National Security.
• Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg left for Athens Monday night to attend the OSCE foreign ministerial meeting. Clinton was supposed to go, but had to hang back because of Tuesday's rollout of the administration's new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy and her testimony before Congress on Wednesday and Thursday. Clinton will go to Brussels on Thursday afternoon for the NATO ministerial meeting.
• Clinton spoke with 10 foreign ministers on Thanksgiving about Afghanistan, but Kelly would not confirm that she asked French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner for 1,500 new French troops there.
• Kelly said its now unlikely that State Department negotiators will be able to finish a follow on to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia by the time it expires Dec. 5. "I think that what we're saying now is that we're hoping to get this draft agreement by the end of December. I don't want to raise expectations necessarily that we're going to be able to work out everything by this Saturday," he said.
• The IAEA offer for Iran to have its uranium enriched outside of the country is "still on the table," Kelly said, despite that IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said that talks with Iran over the proposal were at a "dead end." "if we don't get a positive response, we're going to start shifting our focus over to the other track, the track of pressure," Kelly said, not specifically endorsing the conventionally wise end of the year deadline.
• Kelly said he was not aware of statements by North Korea's leaders that they are planning to announce they will return to the Six Party Talks when Ambassador Stephen Bosworth goes to Pyongyang next week, despite reports in the Asian press.
• Kelly declined to comment on the news that Chelsea Clinton is engaged to her long time boyfriend Marc Mazvinsky.