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BERLIN, Feb 4: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began her first foreign tour as America's top diplomat by saying on Friday that Washington had no immediate plans to attack Iran and was pursuing a diplomatic approach.
"The question is simply not on the agenda at this point - we have diplomatic means to do this," she said when asked in London if Washington was considering military action to force compliance from Tehran on its nuclear programme.
Her response, assuaging fears of imminent military action, though leaving the door open for the future, was unlikely to reduce global tensions over Iran, which President George Bush this week called the "world's primary state sponsor of terror".
Condoleezza Rice, who later flew to Berlin, hopes to use her week-long tour of Europe and the Middle East to heal transatlantic ties and launch a new push for Middle East peace.
Ms Rice insisted the Middle East conflict was high on the US agenda, as both Europe and the Arab world want. She reiterated US offers to help train Palestinian security forces and hailed a shift in mood under new Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whom she meets on Monday.
Reform was sweeping through the Middle East, she said in a speech littered with references to the US push for "liberty". "Iran is not immune to the changes that are going on in this region," she added, referring to recent elections in Afghanistan and Iraq.
MIXED SIGNALS: Three EU countries are trying to engage and negotiate with Iran to ensure it does not develop nuclear weapons, but the United States has preferred a tactic of confronting and isolating it.
Iran denies US charges it is developing a nuclear bomb. It says its programmes are for peaceful power generation needed to accommodate its growing population. Ms Rice said Iran needs to live up to its obligations and agree to inspections of nuclear facilities.
"It is the Iranians that are isolated on this issue - not the United States," she said, lambasting Tehran's "abysmal human rights record". Explaining a hardening of the US stance towards Iran this year, a senior State Department official said: "The president and the Secretary (of State) have made more explicit that we support the aspirations of the Iranians to control their own government."
Before her talks in London and Berlin, Ms Rice played down differences between the European and US approaches. "There is really very little difference between us about the challenges we face in dealing with the Iranian regime. We have many diplomatic tools still at our disposal and we intend to pursue them fully," she added.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw also put a positive spin on future cooperation. After the Iraq elections, "we now have the opportunity to put the divisions behind us", he said.
He confirmed Ms Rice will attend a March conference in London with Palestinian officials, organized by Prime Minister Tony Blair. As well as Iran, US anger at the EU's plan to lift an arms embargo on China and differences over where to try war criminals from Sudan's conflict in Darfur could cloud Ms Rice's visit to Europe.
WESTERN DIPLOMATS: Iran has been testing parts for machines that could be used to develop nuclear weapons, Western diplomats said on Thursday. Several Western diplomat who follow the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran was performing quality control checks of "non-essential items" for centrifuges, machines that purify uranium to make fuel for nuclear power plants or weapons.
"If they would act in good faith, there would be a complete standstill of every activity that relates to centrifuges," one diplomat said. This may be a breach of Iran's pledge to freeze all activities related to uranium enrichment, he added. -Reuters
