Rice Makes Headway In Europe

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rolled along Friday on her first foreign tour of countries since taking office, mixing smiles and diplomacy with tough talk on the Middle East.

During stops in both Germany and Great Britain, she played up America's alliance with European leadership by pledging Friday to help Israel and the Palestinians seize an opening for peace in the Middle East. After meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, she said the United States has "no better friend and no better ally," than Britain.

But she also spoke in tough phrases about Iran, and wavered over the question of whether the Bush administration would like to see a new government there.

She told Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder diplomacy could neutralize a nuclear threat in Iran.

"Now is the time for our diplomacy to put our alliance to work in the service of great goals and great opportunities that stand before us," Rice said.

In places as diverse as the West Bank and Luxembourg, Rice is using her new role as the top U.S. diplomat to attempt to Calm waters still troubled by the U.S.-led war in Iraq is a major aim of Rice's weeklong trip through Europe and the Middle East. Rice's jammed schedule takes her to two or three countries each day of the trip, her first abroad as America's new top diplomat.

After her talks in Berlin Friday, Rice is heading to Poland, Turkey, Israel, the West Bank and Italy. She stops then in Paris to deliver a speech on the United States' relationship with the European Union.

Saturday will see her in Turkey, where Rice is expected to reiterate the administration's hardline stance on Iran's nuclear ambitions. Rice, a soviet specialist, will meet her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, there.

She seemed to make headway in Germany, where the government fiercely opposed the war and refused to commit troops.

"We have discussed this topic at length and we very strongly agree that what the country now needs is a perspective towards the course of democracy and stability for its future," Schroeder said after an hour-long meeting with Rice. "We are very much agreed on this purpose and on this being the important point, irrespective of what one thought about the military intervention in Iraq in the first place."

Rice urged the world to support Iraqis after voters in national elections Sunday "demonstrated they are prepared to set aside fear and their past and try to build a new and free society."

When speaking in Britain, Rice said the United States encourages diplomacy with Iran, but won't join the Europeans in some Iran talks, according to CBS News Correspondent Richard Roth. But that does not mean the Bush administration is looking to go to war with Iran.

"The question is simply not on the agenda at this point in time," Rice said. "You know we have diplomatic means to do this."

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "the most difficult and pressing challenge facing the whole international community," but one that can be solved "with wholehearted international support."

The stalled peace process has gained new life since the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last year. Rice visits Israel and the West Bank over the weekend and other leaders will attend a preliminary peace meeting in Egypt next week.

"We very much hope that we can use this momentum because we feel it is in the air," Schroeder said.

Those hopeful notes about the broader Middle East region come atop Rice's unusually strong language in recent days condemning the religious leadership in Iran for alleged human rights abuses and deceit about its nuclear program.

Rice toned down the rhetoric Friday and sought to play down the possibility that the United States might invade or attack Iran.

"Diplomacy can work in this case if there is unity of purpose and unity of message to the Iranians that the international community expects them to live up to their obligations," Rice said in Berlin.

Britain, Germany and France are leading a European diplomatic campaign to end Iranian nuclear weapons ambitions. The United States has not joined that effort.

The Bush administration has accused the Iranians of using a legitimate civilian nuclear power program to hide an illegitimate weapons program. Rice has called Iranian behavior loathsome, and said the regime continues to "play games every time they can."

"I don't think anybody thinks that the unelected mullahs who run that regime are a good thing for the Iranian people and for the region," Rice also said.

That rhetoric echoes the Bush administration's claims during the first term that prewar Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and that its then-dictator, Saddam Hussein, needed to be held to international account.

Although the Bush administration has said nothing publicly to push for military action next door in Iran, there is some international suspicion that the United States might do so in Bush's second term.

Rice would not say whether the United States supports a change of government in Iran, although U.S. officials have previously said there is no such goal.

"The behavior of the Iranian government, both internally and externally, is of concern to an international community that is increasingly unified around the view that values matter; that the Middle East is a place that is in need of reform and change," Rice said in Berlin. "I see no difficulty in continuing to say that and continuing to work for that."