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QUESTION: And second question, Madame Secretary, a fairly simple question: According to your sources, did Syria have nuclear equipment or maybe they still have?

SECRETARY RICE: As to your question to me, I'm not going to comment on any specific reports. I'll just note that the United States has been, under President Bush, extremely active in fighting the scourge of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in general. The President has made very clear that he intends to work with the international community actively to prevent the world's most dangerous weapons from ending up in dangerous hands.

And as a result, we have a Proliferation Security Initiative, for instance, which helps us to track and in some cases intercept dangerous cargos. We have worked very actively with our friends and allies to get strong language on proliferation in various United Nations and IAEA documents. And finally, we have worked very actively to undermine networks. And indeed the wrapping up of the A.Q. Khan network, which was a black market way to transfer nuclear materials, nuclear equipment to states, rogue states, was probably one of the great victories for proliferation -- for the anti-proliferation efforts. So we're making very great efforts but I won't comment on specific cases.

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QUESTION: I'd like to -- this question to Secretary Rice. I would like to hear, please, your comment on the things that Bernard Kouchner, Foreign Secretary of France, said that the war against Iran may be inevitable.

SECRETARY RICE: The President has said -- President Bush -- that the United States is committed to a diplomatic track because we believe a diplomatic track will work. The President of the United States also never takes any of his options off the table.

Now, why will the diplomatic track work? It will work if there is -- why might it work? If there is international unity, which we've been able to achieve in two Security Council resolutions that have been unanimous Chapter 7 resolutions. If there is resoluteness in the international community to do even more, so that - I've been very pleased to see that a number of private entities are making decisions about investment in Iran, I think on the basis of investment and reputational risk. Private banks have left Iran. A number of companies are not going to deal with Iran. And I think it is extremely important that governments signal, as Germany did with the cutting of their export credits, as the French are now doing, that it is not business as usual with a state that is seeking the technologies that could lead to a nuclear weapon and whose President has said the most awful things about another member of the United Nations, speaking of wiping Israel off the map. So it can't be business as usual with Iran.

But our view is that the diplomatic track can work. It has to have both a way for Iran to pursue a peaceful resolution of this issue and it has to have teeth. And the UN Security Council and other measures are providing teeth.

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