We will also talk about the various areas of the world in which there are difficulties: Iraq, to talk with our allies about how America will move forward responsibly in Iraq to help the Iraqis be secure; Lebanon; and also I will go to Israel and to the Palestinian territories to talk about moving forward on the very important initiatives that the President took in his speech a few days ago.

QUESTION: First, New York Times reported lately that the American command in Iraq has prepared a detailed plan that calls for a significant U.S. role in Iraq for the next two years. Are you considering such a long presence there?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the President will hear from his military commanders. And I would caution that there is a lot of planning that is going on and different plans will say different things. But the President will wait for an assessment from his chief commander, General Petraeus, and from Ambassador Crocker, and then we can chart a way forward.

What is very clear is that America has interests in the region that are enduring, but our goal is to help Iraqis become self-sufficient, to help Iraqis to create a country that is there for all Iraqis, and to create the governing institutions and the security forces that can defend it.

QUESTION: That assessment will be in September? Because we've heard lately that the assessment needs more month, maybe till November, to do it.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the President will most certainly have an assessment in the -- in the fall because -- in September -- because that is in statute. The Congress expects that assessment. The President expects that assessment.

Clearly, the world won't stop in September and the work that we're doing in Iraq will not stop in September. Our dedication to population security and helping the Iraqis to provide it will not stop in September. And so when General Odierno says that we will know more in November, we will know more in November. But September is going to be a very important moment to look at where we are.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Motaki has said today that Iran would consider meeting the U.S. at deputy foreign minister level if the U.S. suggested it. Are you considering such a suggestion?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think the talks that Ambassador Crocker and the Iranian Ambassador have had that are about security in Iraq and that are about Iraq, not about U.S.-Iranian relations but about Iraq, that that is an important channel and they will set up now an expert-level working group to work on security.

As to the broader relationship, it's very clear what it will take to have the first high-level contacts between the United States and Iran in more than 27 years. And there's an international goal here, an international demand, and that is that Iran would suspend its enrichment and reprocessing efforts so that we could begin negotiations. And I have said that when that happens, I'm prepared to meet my Iranian counterpart any time and any place.

QUESTION: That means that you are not with this suggestion?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we have a way forward to talks with Iran. And it is not just a way forward with the United States; it is one that is internationally supported, that is a large group of countries, the six countries -- the Permanent Five of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany -- that have made a very, I think, reasonable, indeed generous, offer to Iran about a way to move to a cooperative relationship with the international community.

And there's more. The United States understands like the rest of the world that Iran may wish to exercise an option for civil nuclear power. The question is how to get civil nuclear power without proliferation risk. And so if Iran is prepared to forego enrichment and reprocessing, there would be all kinds of help for Iran to have a civil nuclear program, and, in fact, one of a very sophisticated level.

QUESTION: Iranian President Ahmadi-Nejad said last week after a meeting with President Assad in Damascus, "We hope that the hot weather of the summer would coincide with similar victories for the region's peoples and with consequent defeat for the region's enemies." How do you comment on that?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I don't think it's worth comment. I really think that perhaps President Ahmadi-Nejad should worry about the corrosive, failed economic policies that he is pursuing in Iran that have Iranians dealing with gas rationing; that has Iran isolated from the international community, with financial institution after financial institution refusing to deal with Iran; with investment credits to Iran just falling and falling and falling; with Iran under two Security Council resolutions, in Chapter 7 now, which is hardly a group of countries that you would want to be associated with, countries like Sudan.

These are policies that are really very devastating for a country that should be a productive, integrated member of the international community. Iran is a great country. Iranians are a great people. They are entrepreneurial people. They're creative people. The culture is one that has a long, long history, far longer than the history of the United States. And yet Iran finds itself in this position of isolation.

So I would hope that perhaps Iran's leadership and their president would look at those policies and examine them, rather than wishing ill on the region.

QUESTION: Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers have paid a visit to Israel today to extend the hand of peace on behalf of the Arab League. How do you assess this visit?

SECRETARY RICE: We think this is a very positive development that the Egyptians and the Jordanians have gone to talk to the Israelis. As President Bush said, it is really very important that the Palestinian people know that there is a horizon for them of a Palestinian state, they can live side-by-side in peace and freedom with Israel, that can be their own state where their aspirations can be met.

And there is so much that can be done by Arab states to support the progress that the Palestinians and Israelis need to make on their bilateral track. One of the things that I will do when I go to the region is to both try and stimulate movement on the bilateral track between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and to encourage the Arab states to really look at a horizon that would be an Arab-Israeli horizon. Because when the conflict ends, it should end for all parties.

QUESTION: President Bush has called for an international meeting on the Middle East next fall -- when is it going to happen and where? And why did President Bush call it an international meeting, not -- or instead of international conference?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, "international meeting", I think, is perfectly fine. We shouldn't get hung up on the semantics here, but the important point about this meeting is that it would be to promote the two-state solution, to review progress the Palestinians themselves are making on institution-building, the kind of work that Prime Minister Tony Blair is doing with the Palestinians, but also to provide international support for the bilateral discussions and to -- for the negotiations that the Palestinians and Israelis will need to have to establish a Palestinian state.

This can't be a "Made in America" solution. And so I'm also going to the region to consult about this international meeting, to talk to the parties about what would make it a success. I'm not going there to issue invitations. I don't intend to do that now. The President will do that when we have had a chance to consult on how this meeting might be most fruitful.

QUESTION: Do you have any date or a place?

SECRETARY RICE: No, but in the fall we will do this, and the most important thing now is to have adequate preparation for the meeting.

QUESTION: Are you optimistic about the establishment of the Palestinian state? Do you think it will be feasible before the end of President Bush's term?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, all that the President and I can do is to give every ounce of our energy to try and help to move forward on the two-state solution to establish the Palestinian state. I can't tell you that it will all be done when we are finished here, but I can tell you that there will be a Palestinian state.

The Palestinian people have waited too long for the state. The Israelis have waited too long for the security that will come from having a viable and democratic neighbor. And I believe that the Palestinians, who are intelligent people, entrepreneurial people, people who have the same aspirations for democracy and prosperity, are going to insist that the conditions are there so that the state can come into being.

And I believe that Israel understands too that it has obligations that need to be met and need to be met now, because the future of Israel is not under the continued occupation of the West Bank. The future of Israel is in building a strong Israeli state in places like the Negev and Galilee, as the President said in his speech.

QUESTION: Israel Prime Minister has called on President Assad to reopen peace talks between the two countries. Do you welcome any resumption of negotiations between Israel and Syria?

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, clearly, if Israel and Syria are ready to have negotiations, fruitful negotiations, the United States would be supportive of that. I think that the -- it's also been said that Syria should, however, engage in policies that suggest that it is going to be a productive and constructive member of the international community, constructive in the region, not destabilizing in the way that it has been in Lebanon, in the Palestinian territories, and in Iraq, where foreign terrorists continue to enter across the Syrian border.

QUESTION: On Lebanon, how do you view, Madame Secretary, the upcoming presidential elections and who don't you support for the presidency?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the election of a president for Lebanon will be, of course, a matter for the Lebanese. They need a president who is committed to Lebanese sovereignty and committed to Lebanese democracy.

But the Lebanese people will make that decision. They need to be able to make it without foreign interference. And that is our concern: that they need to be able to make it without intimidation; they need to be able to make it without reference to a past in which, for instance, Syria occupied Lebanese territory.

But I would just say one thing to the Lebanese people. This, in some ways, has been a difficult time because it's a difficult anniversary, the terrible times of the war a year ago when Lebanon suffered so much. And the international community and the United States have tried to respond to help the Lebanese people rebuild.

The Lebanese Government has also responded. The government of Prime Minister Siniora has done remarkable things. When you think that the Lebanese army is actually now deployed throughout the country for the first time in decades, that they are actually fighting terrorists on behalf of the Lebanese people, these are real accomplishments. There's more work to be done, but Lebanon has good friends in the international community and good friends of a democratic and sovereign Lebanon.

QUESTION: The UN Coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Michael Williams, has said that continuation of arms smuggling from Syria to Lebanon is a serious challenge to the implementation of 1701. How are you going to deal with this issue?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, first, I agree completely with the view that the smuggling of arms is serious problem. It's a violation of 1701 and it's a serious problem for its implementation. I know that Europeans are working with the Lebanese Government to try to enhance the capability of the Lebanese army to deal with this. The Lebanese army has intercepted several shipments. The Lebanese army has made -- the Lebanese have made available information about some of this smuggling.

I think the United Nations Security Council owes it to Lebanon and it owes it to its own resolution to look very seriously at how this is happening and to propose ways that the perpetrators could be deterred from doing it or punished if they continue to do it.

QUESTION: At the end, Madame Secretary, do you have any word you want to address to the Arab world?

SECRETARY RICE: I would say to the Arab world that the United States has a long history of involvement with the Arab world and with the Middle East. It's not always been an involvement that I think upheld the principles of democracy and freedom. Sometimes we fell into a sense of exceptionalism for the Middle East and talked only about stability.

This President wants to see a Middle East in which people can truly have their aspirations met, their aspirations for democracy and freedom, for prosperity, also where the values of family and the values of faith are respected. Because we here in the United States could never disrespect Islam because Islam is a part of us. Islam is a very fast-growing religion in the United States. We could never disrespect Islam because we know that it is a great faith and a peaceful faith. And we could never respect -- disrespect Islam by believing that the violent people who kill innocent people and chant the names of Islam really represent the future of the Middle East and the future of the Arab world.

There will come a day when there is peace and freedom and there will come a day, I hope soon, when there's a Palestinian state, where Palestinians can carry out their aspirations in democracy and peace. And the United States wants to be a constructive partner in building that kind of a Middle East.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, thank you so much for your time.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.

QUESTION: I appreciate it.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much.

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