SECRETARY RICE: So we can just start with whatever is on your minds. I don't need to make any statement.

QUESTION: I think I will start it then.

SECRETARY RICE: All right, great.

QUESTION: Okay, we'll start with, actually, I think Iran dominates, actually, I think, and you're arriving in a quite crucial moment in Greece. On the 28th, the date set for the Security Council expires. So my question is: Do you think that it's time for diplomacy runs out, what's next?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the time for diplomacy has certainly not run out. We have many other diplomatic steps ahead of us. In fact, we are in a different phase of the diplomacy because we're in the Security Council now. Greece is, of course, a responsible member and will have therefore an extremely important voice in this next phase.

I would hope that Iran would reconsider its position because it is very clear that the international community is prepared to see Iran have civil nuclear power. That's not the issue. The Russians have offered an arrangement. The Europeans have offered arrangements.

The one thing that cannot be done is to allow Iran to have the technologies that could lead to a nuclear weapon, so enrichment and reprocessing on Iranian territory is not possible. But there is a very good path there for Iran if it chooses to take it. If it does not choose to take it, then I think in the Security Council we will have to look at what action to take because there will have to be credibility to the statement that was made a month ago.

QUESTION: So you think it's possible to get a decision in the Security Council?

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, I do think it's possible to get a decision. The Iranians have thus far not demonstrated any willingness to accept the direction, the will, of the international community. And I was saying to someone yesterday, this is not American policy; this is the policy of the Security Council, the United Nations Security Council. And so Iran needs to adhere to that. But I think if we don't have adherence, we will get some decision in the Security Council. I can't begin to predict precisely what the Security Council will choose to do, but I'm quite certain it will choose to do something.

QUESTION: Dr. Rice, let's take the worst case scenario that you don't have a decision in the Security Council, that Iran is not flexible; and since you're not only in Greece, you're, let's say, in the wider area of Middle East or the Balkans, you're going to Turkey, you're going to a meeting in Sofia with your NATO colleagues. Would you rule out any possibility of a conflict?

SECRETARY RICE: Yes. Well, the President has made very clear that he doesn't take any option off the table, but he's also made very clear that there is -- that we're on a diplomatic course here and that that's what we believe will work.

It requires the international community to remain firm. That it does require. It requires the Iranians to recognize that there is no other course but to accept the will of the international community. In order to do that, the international community has to remain united.

But I do think that if the community remains united Iran will not have other options at its disposal. It is not a country --

QUESTION: That's a good case scenario.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, it's the -- I think it's the most realistic case scenario and I'll tell you why. Iran is not like North Korea, where the isolation is almost self-imposed. Iran is a country that is accustomed to diplomatic relations with most countries -- not with us but with most of the world; to travel for its leadership and for its people; for trade with the rest of the world. And what Iran is doing is it's risking -- the regime is risking isolation and an end to that kind of interchange with the international community. I don't believe that the Iranian regime can sustain that kind of isolation and so I suspect -- and the other thing is that the Security Council is the most important forum. It is true that others are considering what else might be done on the financial and economic side.

Again, I think we all -- and let me just go to the bottom line. Iran is not Iraq. This is a very different set of circumstances. We were in a state of hostilities with Iraq for 12 years after the end of the Gulf War. The Iraqis were practically every day shooting at American and British planes as they tried to patrol the no-fly zone. This was a different situation. But in Iraq, we did not over that 12 years maintain international unity. That's what we have to strive to do in Iran.

QUESTION: So at the end of the day, you don't have in mind any coalition of the willing to respond (inaudible)?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, coalitions of the willing are entirely possible. But let me --

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

SECRETARY RICE: It's a means. But let me be very clear. Coalition of the willing does not mean coalition of the willing to use military force. Coalition of the willing can mean that if, in fact, we cannot achieve reasonable steps in the Security Council to bring greater pressure on Iran, perhaps there are states that will wish to do that. But the only reason that I hesitate to use the word "coalition of the willing" is that people have in mind a certain thing.

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

SECRETARY RICE: Right. They mean the -- but a coalition of the willing is active in the North Korea -- that coalition of the willing is six parties that are involved there. And so it is entirely possible that if we cannot work within the Security Council, and I still think we can, that there are other options, diplomatic options, available.

QUESTION: Well, is my country part of the coalition of the willing?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the most important thing that Greece is, is Greece is a member of the Security Council and --

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

SECRETARY RICE: Right.

QUESTION: It's also one of your colleagues.

SECRETARY RICE: It's one of our close allies. It's a NATO member. And --

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

SECRETARY RICE: A strategic partner, member of the EU. I mean, all of these are elements of the relationship between Greece and the United States. But I think it's too early to say that we will not achieve what we need to achieve within the Security Council because the Iranians continue to use language and to make speeches -- Ahmadi-Nejad did yesterday make a speech -- all of which continued to deepen Iran's isolation and to make the world wonder what is it that they are up to if this is the way that they are behaving.

QUESTION: You've just told that it's too early, but it seems to me the case of Iran that we have a risky game with time. Do you intend to put a deadline of some kind to Iranian regime to end all its programs?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, it's a very good point because, unfortunately, I think we can never know for certain what the state of Iranian nuclear programs really is. And usually in history we have tended to predict on the short side, meaning that we have tended to think that the programs were not as developed as they were. It was the case with the Soviet bomb, with the Indian program, with the Chinese program and the first time with Iraq.

And so you're right, there isn't any time to waste in a sense. But I also think that there is time to have the international community act and act in a very consistent fashion. But we're going to have to move along. It's not something that can go years in the Security Council.

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