(CNN) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have a "very good personal and professional working relationship," a State Department spokesman said Friday, disputing reports in Bob Woodward's upcoming book that their relationship was "hostile".

"There's no shortage of communication," said Sean McCormack, speaking at the department's daily briefing. "They talk to each other all the time."

The comments came ahead of the Monday release of Woodward's book, "State of Denial." A New York Times story on Friday said the Washington Post editor wrote that the officials' relationship was so icy that President Bush had "to tell [Rumsfeld] to return her phone calls" when Rice was national security adviser.

McCormack disputed that assertion, saying the officials and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell "talked every single morning." That tradition continues, he added, with a regular call involving Rice, Rumsfeld and current national security adviser Stephen Hadley.