Rice denies US on warpath with Iran

WASHINGTON:   Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied Sunday that the United States was bent on war with Iran and renewed an offer of reconciliation talks if the Islamic republic renounces its nuclear drive.   

Interviewed on ABC television, Rice was pressed on a Senate resolution passed in September that labeled Iran's Revolutionary Guards a terrorist operation -- a step that critics said had brought war nearer.   

She said that President George W. Bush was clear "that he's on a diplomatic path where Iran comes into focus."   

"Obviously it can be the case that he will never take his options off the table, but this particular resolution has nothing to do with that from our point of view," Rice said referring to the prospect of military force on Iran.   

"This resolution is saying that there need to be strong measures taken against Iran, which we have definitely done," she said after the Bush administration announced new sanctions on Iranian groups including the Guards.   

Democratic critics such as presidential contender Barack Obama have said the resolution is a "blank check" for Bush to wage war on Iran, which has refused to bow to international demands to halt its uranium enrichment.   

Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have been using bellicose rhetoric against the Islamic republic, with the president warning of the threat of "World War III" if Iran gains the know-how to make nuclear weapons.   

While Obama has said he would open talks with Iran without preconditions, Rice said the United States and its European allies had already offered Tehran trade and political incentives to stop its enrichment work.   

"We would reverse 28 years of policy," she said, referring to a US embargo imposed after Iran's Islamic revolution, and said she would meet her Iranian counterpart "any place, any time, anywhere."   

"They just have to give up the fuel cycle... the technologies that can lead to a nuclear weapon."