SECRETARY CLINTON: Before I get started and talk about the important and substantive meeting we had today, I want to say a word about the situation involving the Maersk ship. Secretary Gates and I are fully engaged in this matter. We consider it a very serious matter. These people are nothing more than criminals. And we are bringing to bear a number of our assets, including naval and FBI work in order to resolve the hostage situation and bring the pirates to justice. Piracy may be a centuries-old crime, but we are working to bring an appropriate 21st century response.

Today, it's been a great pleasure to host not only my colleague, Secretary Gates, but also Foreign Minister Smith and Defense Minister Fitzgibbon for this year's Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations. As President Obama said a few weeks ago when he met with Prime Minister Rudd, there are few countries that have been closer than the United States and Australia. And I think holding this AUSMIN meeting during the Obama Administration's first 100 days underscores the importance we attach to our alliance and our belief in the strength of our partnership to meet bilateral, regional, and global challenges.

We had a far-reaching discussion that was indicative of the shared values and common approaches we take on many issues. We talked about our cooperation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, how we will intensify our efforts to defeat extremism, strengthen the rule of law, and promote economic development. We look forward to discussing these issues with the international community at the April 17th Pakistan donors conference in Tokyo.

We also discussed Iran and the ongoing efforts of the international community to ensure that Iran's nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes. We discussed the important goal of nonproliferation and a world without nuclear weapons, and how we will work together to strengthen the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty regime.

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QUESTION: Never. Just one day after the United States announced its latest overture to Iran, specifically the agreement of Ambassador Burns to sit in on all P-5+1 contacts with Iranians, the regime in Iran has made a huge display today of announcing that it is currently operating 7,000 centrifuges. That is approximately 1,500 more centrifuges than what IAEA nuclear inspectors claimed to have observed in February in their latest report. So first, do you believe this claim about 7,000 centrifuges, and do you see it as a rebuff?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, James, first of all, we don't know what to believe about the Iranian program. We've heard many different assessments and claims over a number of years. One of the reasons why we are participating in the P-5+1 is to enforce the international obligations that Iran should be meeting, to ensure that the IAEA is the source of credible information, because as you just pointed out, there is a great gap between what the IAEA observed about seven - six, seven weeks ago, and what the Iranians are now claiming. It would benefit the Iranians in our view if they cooperated with the international community, if they abided by a set of obligations and expectations that affect them, and by which we believe they are bound. And we're going to continue to insist on that.

We do not attribute any particular meaning with respect to the range of issues that we are looking to address with the Iranians from this particular statement.

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