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  At the start of her first trip abroad since succeeding Colin Powell at the State Department, Rice also told reporters that last weekend's election in Iraq vindicates the U.S.-led toppling of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The invasion was broadly unpopular in many of the European capitals that Rice will visit over the next week. A major goal of Rice's trip is to shift the subject in Europe toward the possibility of Middle East peace and other mutual goals.

"I don't think anybody thinks that the unelected mullahs who run that regime are a good thing for the Iranian people and for the region," Rice said en route to London, her first stop. Her itinerary includes visits to Jerusalem and the West Bank to encourage peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Rice planned to meet on Friday with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. In stops in Berlin later Friday and Paris next week, she may run into war opposition that still lingers.

Iraq's elections for a national assembly "clearly remind us why we worked to liberate the Iraqi people from that terrible dictator," Rice said.

Acknowledging that "we all know that it's been difficult in Iraq," Rice said she still would "trade anytime" the stability offered under Saddam's rule for the self-determination promised by the election.

"It should just remind us all that those of us who had the good fortune to live on the right side of freedom's divide have an obligation to those who are left on the other side of freedom's divide to try to achieve their aspirations," Rice said.

On that point, she said, even those who "disagree about what we did or when we did it," can unite.

"I don't think there's anyone in Europe or anyplace else that thinks that the Iraqi people deserved Saddam Hussein," Rice said.

International Support

It is not clear how much international support there is for any potential action against Iran. The United States has been cool to European efforts to negotiate a halt to suspected Iranian nuclear weapons development, preferring stiffer measures such as economic penalties.

"I think that our European allies agree that the Iranian regime's human rights behavior and its behavior toward its own population is something to be loathed," Rice said.

Asked directly whether the United States supports a change in leadership in Iran, Rice said: "We are engaged in a process with many others that is aimed at making clear to the Iranians that their behavior internally and externally is out of step with the direction and desire of the international community."

During his State of the Union address Wednesday night, President Bush urged the government in Tehran to "end its support for terror. And to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you."

On Thursday, Iran's supreme leader said Bush's policies toward Iran will fail.

"America is like one of the big heads of a seven-headed dragon," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in Iran's capital. "The brains directing it are Zionist and non-Zionist capitalists who brought Bush to power to meet their own interests."

At her Senate confirmation hearings last month, Rice said the United States wants "a regime in Iran that is responsive to concerns that we have about Iran's policies, which are 180 degrees" antithetical to America's interests.

Rice said she does not plan to attend next week's Middle East summit meeting in Egypt, although she said it was one of several hopeful signs for peace.

Rice will meet with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders ahead of that summit, but she indicated Thursday that the United States is taking something of a hands-off approach, for now.

"Not every effort has to be an American effort," Rice said. "It is extremely important that the parties themselves are taking responsibility. It is extremely important that the regional actors are taking responsibility."

President Bush pledged $350 million in aid for the Palestinians in Wednesday's State of the Union speech. Rice said it is too soon to say how that money will be spent.

She issued a veiled rebuke to Arab countries that have lagged behind Europeans and others in financial or other support for Israeli-Palestinian peace or have not acted to quell terrorism.

"Some in the region have not been as generous as they might be," Rice said. "I think it is time for everybody to look deep inside and say, `If we want the Israeli-Palestinian peace to be achieved and sustain momentum, what more can we do?'"

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