Condi: Bolton Has 'Rough Edges'

Secretary Of State Defends Embattled Nominee To U.N.

(CBS/AP)  Shortly after Rice started speaking, three protesters stood up wearing black robes and black hoods and their arms outstretched at their sides, an apparent reference to U.S. abuse of detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

The crowd applauded as the protesters, shouting their opposition to the war in Iraq, were taken from the hall.

Rice seemed undisturbed by the interruption.

"In Baghdad, Kabul and soon in Beirut, they too will be able to speak their minds," she said.

About a hundred protestors demonstrated outside Davies Symphony Hall, where Rice spoke.

On Iraq, Rice said that country's democracy "is not going to look like the United States of America, but it's not going to look like Saddam's Iraq. And thank God for that, because it was time to get that monster out of the center of Baghdad."

She acknowledged that Iraq's fledging democratic government has had difficulties, and that it is not unusual for historical changes to result in violence. But she added that to date, the Baghdad leadership has not made a compromise "as bad as the one in 1789 that made my ancestors three-fifths of a man, so let's be humble about what they're going through."

Rice was referring to a constitutional compromise in which originally, three-fifths of a state's slaves were counted in deciding the state's representation in Congress and other issues.

Asked about the prospects for withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, she said President Bush believes that step can be taken only after success has been achieved.

"It would not be a good thing to leave before this job is finished," she said.

On Iran, Rice said it would be an "enormously dangerous" situation if Iran were to become a nuclear weapons state.

"We're going to do everything we can to prevent that outcome," she said, adding that Iran "is very much out of step" with trends in the region.

Iranian officials said this week that their country would not develop nuclear weapons and would continue a moratorium on uranium enrichment activities.

Rice has a long association with the San Francisco area, having served as provost at nearby Stanford University before joining the Bush administration in 2001.