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QUESTION: Well, then let's talk a little bit then about Iran. The deadline for Iran to stop enriching uranium is this week. Today, Iran's President said this: Iran will not retreat "one iota" from its nuclear path. And despite the UN sanctions and the financial sanctions that you're pursuing against Iran, it seems as though no matter what you do, Iran is determined to go ahead with its nuclear program. What options do you really have?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the option that we have is to continue to try to convince those who are reasonable in Iran that the course of Iran is destructive. It's destructive for the Iranian people. It's destructive for Iranian well-being. Because Iran is isolating itself from the international community. We have never said that Iran should be isolated in this way. We want Iran to enjoy the benefits of a civil nuclear program. We understand the desire for that. In fact, civil nuclear cooperation is possible.

But the international community -- not the United States -- the international community has said that there can not be enriching and reprocessing, which is technology that can lead to a nuclear weapon.

QUESTION: But the international community's pressure with sanctions and rhetoric doesn't seem to be working --

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we've just begun this path in many ways. The agreement to go to the UN and to have a sanctions resolution is not that long since we passed that. And the Iranians do have another path, after all. The six powers -- the EU-3, the United States, Russia and Great Britain and China -- have offered a package that could bring Iran into the international community in a very major way. And so we still hope that when Iran looks at the choices, when the regime looks at the choices, it will take the path of cooperation.

QUESTION: The kind of diplomatic pressure that's been imposed on Iran and trying to squeeze Iran that way could take a really long time. It could take years. Your own aides have said that it could take time and the United States doesn't have forever before Iran's nuclear program would reach a point of no return. At what point would you consider a preemptive strike?

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, I'm certainly not going to speculate about what options we might look at. The United States is on a diplomatic path and we believe in this diplomatic path. But the fact is that some of the isolation that is happening as a result of the Chapter 7 resolution, putting Iran in very bad company in the international community -- not very many countries are under a Chapter 7 resolution. I think the concerns that investors are showing about reputational risk as well as investment risk in Iran, those are matters that I do not think the Iranian regime can continue to ignore.

But let me be very clear. I offered last May that if Iran will, in fact, suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities we can sit down together, reverse 27 years of the isolation of the United States from Iran and Iran from the United States, we can talk about anything. That's an offer that I would renew today. We have -- in fact, even under these circumstances we've cooperated some in Afghanistan and I think that was useful. So there is a different path and I would hope that the Iranian leadership would take it because we have great admiration for Iran, for the Iranian people, for their great culture, and we should be in a position to talk.

QUESTION: Iranian officials say too though that the United States needs to take a slightly different path. Senior Iranian officials have told CNN that top levels of the Iranian Government, including the Ayatollah Khamenei himself, believe that the U.S. and Iran are essentially natural allies and what they want to see, the different path they want you to take, is to lower the rhetoric a little bit, to stop taking provocative action, as they see it.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we have had to respond to some activities that Iran was engaged in, activities that were endangering our soldiers in Iraq. It was very important to respond to that. But in the United Nations Security Council when we and the rest of the international community said that Iran needs to suspend enrichment and reprocessing, it's for a reason. It's because if they continue to enrich and reprocess, if they continue to practice that technology, they're that much closer to a nuclear weapon.

So let's have a suspension of that program. Let's have a chance to sit and negotiate. Let's have a chance to explore the package that was put on the table by the six powers. That's the way to move this forward.

QUESTION: But you say that and you also say that the United States is not going to attack Iran, but the rhetoric is increasing on both sides. The United States has sent several warships to the Gulf. As you just mentioned, Iranian agents -- the U.S. is going after Iranian agents in Iraq. And you said today that you're increasing your efforts at missile defense to defend against any Iranian attacks.

So the question is: Is there a danger that in this kind of atmosphere that -- and lack of direct communication -- that there could be missteps on either side that could trigger an accidental war?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I do not think that the activities that we are engaged in are ones that the Iranians have any reason to misinterpret. It's very clear that what we're doing in Iraq is a force protection matter. We can't allow Iranian agents to continue to work on technologies for highly explosive devices that kill our soldiers.

It is important for the United States to reassure allies that we will defend our interests in the Gulf, as every American president has intended to do for decades. It is important that we begin the long lead time work of being able to defend against Iranian missiles, should that threat continue to materialize.

QUESTION: But could all this lead to an accidental war if it further -- the rhetoric is increasing and the --

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, I think that the --

QUESTION: And it's easy for something to go wrong or to be misinterpreted and it just takes that moment.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I don't see how these moves, these activities, can be misinterpreted. But let me just say here publicly, the United States has no desire for confrontation with Iran. None. We would rather have with Iran the opportunity to discuss whatever matters Iran would like to discuss. But we are in a situation in which the international community has demanded that Iran suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities. If that is done, then I'm prepared to meet my counterpart anytime and anywhere to begin those discussions.

QUESTION: If that happens, you say you'll meet, but you won't engage Iran though right now, you won't engage Syria, you won't engage Hamas. But you have engaged with North Korea, a country that was part of the "axis of evil," a country that tested a nuclear device last October. And through the six-party talks, you've managed to achieve a significant result. Why not try that approach with Iran?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the situations are different. In North Korea, of course, we're dealing with the six-party framework in which we've made considerable progress in putting forward a joint message to the North Koreans on what needs to be done. And I think, in fact, we will make progress there.

But let me just be very clear. We have diplomatic relations with Syria and we have engaged Syria in the past. It's not a matter of --

QUESTION: But you're not engaging them now --

SECRETARY RICE: It's not a matter of engagement. It's a matter of whether or not we can get changed behavior. We are looking for signs that Syria is, in fact, ready to cooperate; in fact, ready to do things that are stabilizing in the region. And again, as to Iran, it's not just this Administration. We haven't had an opportunity to engage with Iran for 27 years.

QUESTION: But isn't diplomacy about engaging various --

SECRETARY RICE: Diplomacy -- diplomacy is not --

QUESTION: -- like that and try and change behavior through dialogue?

SECRETARY RICE: Diplomacy is not a matter of just talking. It is a matter of getting results. And when you sit down to talk, I think you want to have some belief that you can get results. It would be very clear to me that it's possible that results might be forthcoming if we can engage Iran on a basis that the international community has asked Iran to accept.

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