QUESTION: In European terms, I could say that you are the minister of foreign affairs of a republic that was born out of colonial war, a liberation struggle. And when you go around the world and you see certain critics saying that this once revolutionary power is an empire, sometimes even an evil empire and an aggressive power, what do you feel? Do you worry?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I wonder how people could think such of the United States. You're right; the United States was born as an ideal -- as an idea. We were born at a time when the separation from Great Britain was a violent separation, but it was one that was founded on the principle that all men were created equal. Interesting, though, that that first founding of America wasn't perfect; America in its first founding made my ancestors slaves. And so Americans know that the process of coming to be a mature democracy is a difficult one. It's not an easy one.

I'm here in Portugal and I know the difficult history that Portugal had to overcome to become a democracy. But it takes two things to become a democracy. One is to have people who are impatient about having the right to believe in the universal rights of liberty and freedom, and it takes friends to help you. And the United States is trying only to be a friend of those who want to have freedom and liberty. It's been our history to try to be friends.

QUESTION: Until 1998, only a few security and intelligence agencies knew about the so-called al-Qaida, till the bombs exploded in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam. And still today you have a National Intelligence Estimate that says that al-Qaida is not anymore only a terrorist cell, but it's an organization, it's an ideology and it's a global threat to the United States. Does it mean that we are losing the war against this criminal gang or (inaudible)?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, al-Qaida is dangerous. Whatever title you want to give them, it's a dangerous organization.

QUESTION: But why did it turn into an ideology?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, it has been an ideology. It was --

QUESTION: Was it, from the beginning?

SECRETARY RICE: Yes. It was an ideology on September 11th. It was an ideology before that. It was an ideology that I think has been born out of the absence of freedom in the Middle East and the absence of hope in the Middle East. But yes, this was a radical ideology that has been there. It has been one to which too many young people who have no hope have been attracted.

But it is also an organization that has been pursued and is being pursued by an international coalition in terms of its law enforcement, in terms of intelligence, and indeed in taking away its sanctuaries in places like Afghanistan. This is not the same organization it was on September 11th. It's still dangerous. But we have made progress (inaudible).

QUESTION: Well, Middle Eastern talk. With your musical skills -- violin, piano, flute, et cetera -- you must understand better than most the logic of a quartet. Is this Quartet really a quartet or with Tony Blair is the quintet, with a maestro or a soprano or, I don't know, a soloist? How do you see the presence of Tony Blair in this Quartet?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I see Tony Blair as someone who is going to bring enormous energy and focus to one of the most important problems of our time, which is helping the Palestinians to build a state, helping them to build the institutions of a state. This is an experienced man. This is someone who is passionate about the Middle East. And it is absolutely necessary in building a Palestinian partner so that we can have a Palestinian state that the Palestinians have a government that is able to carry out rule of law, a government that is able to provide for them in terms of prosperity, a government that is able to provide for them politically and socially. And that is the (inaudible) task that Tony Blair is taking on on behalf of the Quartet, and he'll get plenty of support from the international community and from the Quartet.

QUESTION: Is there any way -- speaking about the Bush initiative, is there any way of talking to the Palestinians by not going through the regular channels of Hamas vs. Fatah, talking to the civil society, to students, to businessmen, to -- do you see a way of doing it in practical terms?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, you ask a very good question, because the Palestinians are not just Fatah and Hamas. The Palestinians are a people who've had a very vibrant civil society -- university educators, doctors and lawyers. And yes, we do try to reach out to those people through our programs that are engaged in democracy building, in university fellowships. It's very important that civil society develop because the basis of any democracy is not just the government, but a robust and functioning civil society. And in the Palestinian people you have a people who have a great tradition of that.

QUESTION: Can we just stay for a final one, just for one second?

SECRETARY RICE: There is a struggle at this moment between the Kremlin and certain exiled tycoons like Boris Berezovsky. Does the West and the United States have any vested interest in taking sides in this dispute?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the only interest that the West and the United States have is that rule of law be followed, that when there are crimes committed that perpetrators be brought to justice. And in cases where that is necessary, one would hope that we would get full cooperation with the Russian Government. But in terms of the kinds of activities that are going on, that whatever produced the Litvinenko case in Great Britain, we have one interest and one interest only, and that is that the rule of law be followed and perpetrators be brought to justice.

QUESTION: Thank you.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.

2007/13-2