CAIRO, June 20: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a major pitch on Monday for democratic reforms in the Middle East, but got a dose of Muslim anger on the latest leg of a whirlwind regional tour. Ms Rice told Arab leaders the United States would no longer tolerate ‘oppression’ in the name of stability, putting allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia on notice as well as familiar targets Iran and Syria.

“We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people,” Ms Rice told 600 scholars and students at the American University in Cairo in the keynote address of her six-day swing.

“Throughout the Middle East, the fear of free choices can no longer justify the denial of liberty,” she said. “It is time to abandon the excuses that are made to avoid the hard work of democracy.”

She echoed a key theme of President George Bush’s second term that global democracy was the best antidote to extremism and the spread of terrorism.

“For 60 years my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in the Middle East — and we achieved neither. Now, we are taking a different course,” she said.

But Ms Rice’s message drew a less than enthusiastic reception in Egypt.

Her speech produced no major applause, merely a polite ovation at the end. The biggest hand was reserved for audience members who questioned her on war crimes against the Palestinians and abuses of the holy Quran.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit heard out Ms Rice’s appeal to ensure a free and fair presidential election in September and had a retort of his own on Arab feelings towards the Americans.

“There is anger in the region,” Abul Gheit told a joint news conference after Ms Rice conferred with President Hosni Mubarak in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh.

“We have to control that anger and we have to work on that anger to build American-Muslim relations,” he said.

Ms Rice, on the fourth leg of her tour, also made a point of meeting eight Egyptian opposition leaders but two major groups were conspicuously absent.

Kefaya, which has spearheaded protests against what it calls sham electoral reforms promoted by Mubarak, said it wanted no dealings with the Americans.

But even as Ms Rice took Egypt’s “arbitrary justice” to task, around 1,000 demonstrators gathered outside the high court in Cairo to protest the detention of four Kefaya supporters.

“Give him a visa, Condoleezza, and take him with you,” chanted the protestors in reference to Mubarak.

The Muslim Brotherhood, a once-militant group that no longer espouses violence, was not invited. “We have not engaged with the Muslim Brotherhood and we won’t,” Ms Rice told a questioner at the American University.

But Ms Rice did meet Ayman Nur, whose detention earlier this year played a role in prompting Ms Rice to cancel plans to visit Egypt in March.

Whatever the reception, Ms Rice pressed on with her pro-democracy campaign.

“There are those who say democracy leads to chaos, conflict and terror. In fact, the opposite in true: freedom and democracy are the only ideas powerful enough to overcome hatred, division and violence.” —AFP