I guess it'd be interesting to hear from you what the U.S. diplomatically can do to help the Iraqis succeed now that -- you know, and particularly this summer.

SECRETARY RICE: Right. Well, there is an internal dynamic in Iraq, of course, where we are trying to help and support the Iraqis in their own internal reconciliation. And I think you would find that the people in our Embassy, our Ambassadors and others, are fully all-out working to help the Iraqis on their reconciliation initiatives.

For instance, we have a budget execution initiative to help them to get their -- the money that they promised to the provinces out. Now, why is that so important? It's extremely important because if you're in a province like Anbar that's begun -- it's a Sunni province that's begun to turn, you want to make sure that the central government in Baghdad is getting the resources out to reward the people who are now taking risks against al-Qaida. So when I say budget execution, people say, well, why is that a reconciliation initiative? Well, it is because it shows that the central government is really going to support Sunni areas of the country in a nondiscriminatory way.

The broader diplomatic front, of course, is that we will try to accelerate these working groups that come out of the Sharm el-Sheikh neighbors conference on border security, on energy supply and on refugees. And of course, we have an upcoming meeting with the Iranians in a few days to explore whether or not the Iranians really mean what they say when they say that they want a stable and secure Iraq, because their behavior is not certainly in that direction.

QUESTION: I was just going to ask you, what are you expectations? And I know the nuclear proliferation issue has not been (inaudible) on the table. However, with the news today that there seems to be evidence that they're continuing down that road, how do you on the one hand ask them to help you stabilize Iraq when they are --

SECRETARY RICE: Well, first of all, it's separate issues. One is on a track. The President talked about it this morning. I talked with the President earlier this morning. Javier Solana is going to meet with his Iranian counterpart at the end of the month. If the Iranians are still not prepared to accept the deal that has been proposed to them, then we're going to have to start to look again at tougher measures both inside the Security Council and outside of the Security Council.

But I want to be clear. The conversations with the Iranians are not that they help us stabilize. They are Iraq's neighbors. They're going to suffer if Iraq is not able to stabilize its own affairs. And so this, I think, will be a discussion following onto the neighbors conference about why Iranian activities are so destabilizing when obviously they say they have an interest in a stable Iraq.

QUESTION: And the sanctions that the President talked about today, do you have any thoughts about when that might happen and what they should be?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we're going to consult. As I said, we'll wait to see what happens out of the Solana meetings with Larijani, where he's taking yet again the proposals that the six have made to the Iranians on everything from trade to civil nuclear cooperation, and without a fuel cycle.

And if that doesn't work, then, you know, we can -- there are sanctions that are already in the Security Council resolutions that might be strengthened -- asset freezes, travel bans and the like. But we also are working with other states on what can be done to -- that puts financial pressures on the Iranians through financial measures. For instance, just the fact that they're under Security Council resolution has made it harder for them to get investment. Countries start taking -- countries and companies, the private sector, begin to examine reputational risk and as well as investment risk. And I think we'll try to step up those activities.

QUESTION: At the Hewlett-Packard stop, you described yourself as a soon-to-be-future professor at Stanford. (Laughter.) Was that a slip?

SECRETARY RICE: I said former and soon-to-be-future. No, no.

QUESTION: Soon-to-be future professor at Stanford?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I'll come back to Stanford, sure.

QUESTION: Are you going back?

SECRETARY RICE: I'm on leave from Stanford.

QUESTION: Okay.

SECRETARY RICE: I'm glad to come back to Stanford.

QUESTION: I know a lot of people --

FOREIGN MINISTER DOWNER: It doesn't mean she's resigning next week. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Well, that's my next question. When do you expect to be back at Stanford?

SECRETARY RICE: If all goes well, at the end of the President's term. But I was just making clear that this is -- I belong west of the Mississippi and I belong out here.

QUESTION: Okay. Is it fair to say you -- at the end, you would expect to come back to Stanford? I don't want to obviously misinterpret something that --

SECRETARY RICE: No, no, I think it's fair to say that my expectation is to come back to Stanford, back to California.

QUESTION: Okay. Since we're on your future, there's a lot of speculation over the last couple of years. I think a couple years ago you were in the news, you know, would you take on Schwarzenegger. Do you have any political ambitions and would you rule -- would you definitively rule out ever running for elective office in California?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I don't see myself running for elective office. I really don't. I don't think I ever ran for student government, actually. But look, one doesn't ever know what life will bring, but I sure don't have any plans to run for office.

QUESTION: In terms of today, I know you've been talking about green technology. Both of you have. You talked about needing to wean ourselves off hydrocarbons.

SECRETARY RICE: Right.

QUESTION: Some might say that's an irony given -- and I know you don't run the EPA, but the head of the state EPA, Schwarzenegger's appointment, Republican, and Attorney General Jerry Brown were back in Washington, you know, threatening to sue the federal EPA saying that they're holding up important waivers that would let California and other states cut back. How you tout green initiatives at the same time the Bush Administration is seen as sometimes anti -- not as friendly as they could be to environmental issues?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I can't comment on the specific issue. I don't -- obviously haven't been following the EPA issues. But this President has been very interested in and devoted to being able to do something about reducing our dependence on oil and gas, on carbon-based energy sources. We spend about $5.8 billion a year on research related in one way -- research and technology related in one way or another to climate change.

We are in an active posture of seeking alternative energy supply and doing it, by the way, with international partners. For instance, we've just -- a couple of months ago, the President was in Brazil and we signed a major biofuels partnership with Brazil, which we're now about to extend to Central America. And that is going to make a big difference to their dependence on carbon-based energy supply. As a matter of fact, Central Americans who were looking to build new oil refineries are now thinking it'd be better for them to be involved instead with sugar cane and the production of biofuels.

We have a major energy partnership called the Asia Pacific Partnership that Australia is a member of along with China, India, South Korea. When you think about that, if you cannot get China and India into some kind of technology-oriented future of technology that gets them off of coal and other carbon-based supplies, you're never going to fix the greenhouse gas emission problem given the growth of those economies.

So this is the one partnership that actually involves China and India as well. The President has been a very active proponent of not just biodiesel but of, for instance, hydrogen cars, looking at other means of transportation. So I think the record of this Administration of pressing forward with market-based approaches to changing our energy mix, increasing our energy independence and being better stewards of the environment is a very strong record.

QUESTION: How fast did you end up going in the Tesla?

SECRETARY RICE: 110, right?

QUESTION: Did you put down your deposit?

SECRETARY RICE: Oh boy, I sure would like to. It was fun. It was fun to (inaudible) in that car.

FOREIGN MINISTER DOWNER: (Inaudible.)

SECRETARY RICE: Yeah, well --

QUESTION: It's just a sports car.

SECRETARY RICE: It's a sports car. It's been fun. I drive a sedan, so --

QUESTION: You talked at HP about the importance of global competitiveness and the role of education. Both of you did point at that. This is a more California focus. There was a report out yesterday -- if you're familiar with the PPIC, a pretty scathing report entitled, you know, can California even import enough of the high-tech skilled workers they need, let alone educate them. At the same time that the immigration bill -- a number of Silicon Valley leaders have expressed concern that the hiring -- they will not be able to hire the most skilled workers under this plan despite an increase in H-1B visas. Do you have any thoughts on what needs to be done if a state like California, where you're here to highlight innovation, can't find enough engineers?

SECRETARY RICE: I think it's a very serious problem. And obviously, on immigration, the President has been a supporter of the HB-1 program. And, you know, comprehensive immigration reform is important in its own right, but we're a country of immigrants and we've been powerful and globally competitive because we have been able to also bring the best and brightest to the country.

But what was -- I was very surprised to hear, frankly -- had not heard this statistic -- that the number of engineering graduates actually went down last year. I think that's something that we really need to look at.

I'm very concerned about our math and science education, which really, if you've not gotten a jump on math and science education in elementary school, you're probably never going to make it up. One of the things we're about to do is we're going to go out and look at a program that I helped start, the Center for a New Generation, which gives to kids who are from less privileged backgrounds a kind of private school and after school and summer program. It's very -- it's math, science and arts oriented. We've got to do more of that. But frankly, I was surprised. It's a concern.

QUESTION: Let me -- to follow up on the immigration bill. Again, I know this is not your creation. However, there seems to be a lot of concern that it's not going to necessarily help. Would you --

SECRETARY RICE: I will certainly take those concerns.

QUESTION: Do you --

SECRETARY RICE: I'll take those concerns back --

QUESTION: I don't know if you heard them today or not.

SECRETARY RICE: I did hear those, and I will certainly take those concerns back.

QUESTION: What other concerns did you hear today?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I heard -- I did hear concerns about this -- the question of educating enough people in science and engineering. And I've -- again, I was very surprised to hear that the numbers have gone down. It's a bad sign; we've got to do better.

QUESTION: Okay. And what would your dream job at Stanford be when you come back?

SECRETARY RICE: (Laughter.) Professor.

QUESTION: Of what?

SECRETARY RICE: Why, Professor of International Politics. That's my area, yeah.

QUESTION: All right. I know you're -- you need to head off. Our education reporter is going to be at the school. She asked me to ask you what is the most compelling evidence that your programs -- shows it really works?

SECRETARY RICE: Yes.

QUESTION: And how can other people emulate it?

SECRETARY RICE: Yeah, yeah.

QUESTION: Obviously, yours is a program at a specific school for a specific number of people.

SECRETARY RICE: Right. Well, what it has done is -- and they can give her the statistics on the number of kids that now have gone on to college. The program has been in being since about 1992. But what it really does is it challenges kids to think beyond their current circumstances out over the horizon: What could I be? And it opens up for them the ability to have -- to make math and science and the arts fun and to make learning something that's not drudgery, but that is really a part of them and really fun.

And to me, the best evidence is that it's gone on this long, it's oversubscribed in terms of students, it's now part of the boys and girls clubs' programs. And now, it's been a real joy to be a part of it.

I think the really important thing about this program was it started by a group of friends. The founding board, many of whom will be out there, and it started with private money and contributions from board members, from companies here in the Silicon Valley, and from foundations. It has no government funding. And it's insisted on excellence for the kids. It's a no-excuses program, and that for me is the most important thing.

QUESTION: I do have a question for you.

SECRETARY RICE: Yeah, yes.

QUESTION: I understand yesterday was your first baseball game. Is that true?

FOREIGN MINISTER DOWNER: It was. I'd never been to a -- well, other than at a school.

QUESTION: And what did the Secretary teach you about baseball?

FOREIGN MINISTER DOWNER: The rules. (Laughter.) And that I should support the San Francisco Giants.

SECRETARY RICE: He had somebody better than me. He had Willie Mays to teach him the rules. (Laughter.)

FOREIGN MINISTER DOWNER: I met Willie Mays and he signed the ball for me, so that's a great occasion.

SECRETARY RICE: Do you want to give -- do you want to add anything on the education and competitiveness point before --

FOREIGN MINISTER DOWNER: Well, I -- look, on the education, I mean, I've been very struck by how so many of the issues you have here in the U.S. and in California are the same as the issues we have. We have a major problem with shortages of skilled labor and we have a problem with getting students to study engineering and science; they want to be lawyers and doctors. Which is good, you know, we need lawyers and we especially need doctors. But they want to become investment bankers because there's a lot of money in investment banking. But to get them to become engineers -- engineers and scientists is difficult.

So we have to bring them in from offshore. And that's difficult as well. We have a -- I guess, you call it the H-1B visa. We have a -- it's called a 457 visa, where we bring in skilled people. And it's not just that there's some controversy about bringing in skilled people, but nevertheless, it's the right thing to do so we stare down the controversy domestically. But it's finding them. It's going out into the world to find these people. It's much more difficult than you might think, and we compete against the United States, we compete against some European countries.

So as we see some countries imposing more restrictions on migration, we think, good, that increases the pool that is available to us. And we basically are hunting the world for skilled workers to keep driving our economy. Ours is a 3 to 4 percent per annum economy. Our per capita GDP -- the only country in the G-8 that has a higher per capita GDP than Australia is the United States. But we can only maintain our extremely high living standards and grow from those living standards through heavy investment in education, including in tertiary education and by getting skilled workers. We can train them up, but we can't train enough. We are going to have to bring in more migrants. And we're going to India, we're going to China. We'll hunt in the Middle East. We're hunting for these people everywhere.

Australia, free of dangerous politics? Oh, sure. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Only of man-eating crocodiles. (Laughter.)

FOREIGN MINISTER DOWNER: Yes, of course you could be eaten in Australia. Sharks. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Anyways, well, thanks. It was nice to meet you.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you, too. Great.