Washington has been "concerned by proliferation in Syria for some time," she told a group of editors and reporters from the Middle East Times and The Washington Times during an hour-long meeting on Thursday.

America's top diplomat also reflected on "two tough decisions taken: to overthrow the Taliban and to liberate Iraq from Saddam Hussein."

"Both right and both necessary. Both very difficult pathways for these young democracies," said Rice.

Looking back on the last five years and the war in Iraq, Rice admitted: "I thought it would be tough, but I didn't think it would be this tough." She added, "It's a society that's only now beginning to emerge."

Commenting on the Islamists' loss of ground in Iraq Rice said, "In showing their brutality al-Qaida has reunited the Iraqi people again."

Turning to the continuing conflict in Afghanistan the secretary said, "We need to make sure that NATO is properly structured for the mission in Afghanistan."

Touching upon what some scholars have called a clash of civilizations, Rice said, "People have taken a great religion and subverted it to their own political purposes.

"This is not a war with or about or against Islam. This is about a group of people who have a particularly converted view of religion and will kill in its name."

She said there was the "need to understand what role the United States can play in drawing that distinction and enabling and promoting and supporting moderate Islam, and what role Islam itself can play."

She regretted the State Department did not invest more in having its diplomats learn languages which are in demand today, such as Arabic, Pashtu and Dari.

On the continuing struggle in Iraq Rice said she thought it was more of a "structural problem."

"If you look at post-conflict societies you are really not talking about war and then peace. You are talking about a continuance where you are talking about continuing to fight terrorism and extremism." At the same time, she said, you're trying to win the population by providing goods and services.

The secretary warned that "authoritarian regimes are not going to create the condition for the emergence of moderate parties [in the Middle East]."

Turning to the Arab-Israeli dispute, which U.S. President George W. Bush hopes he can settle through the creation of a Palestinian state living alongside Israel before he leaves office next January, Rice had some harsh criticism of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

"Yasser Arafat couldn't make peace in 2000 at the time of Camp David for two very simple reasons," said Rice. "He could not give up on terror, which was very obvious when you saw the Iranians with the Karine A sending weapons to the territories," she said, in reference to a naval vessel apprehended by the Israeli navy.

"And," said Rice, "he was corrupt."

She recalled a speech delivered by Bush in which he said that "the Palestinians need new leadership committed to peace, committed to non-violence and most important committed to democracy and to a better life for the Palestinian people. Now they've got that leadership in Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayad."

Rice called it, "clean leadership that is not associated with terrorism."

"That gives, I think, reason for Israel to see that it has a partner and frankly because of this strong support, or in part of this strong support that the United States gave to Israel, Ariel Sharon was able in 2003 to say, 'it's time to divide the land.'

"Now you had the father of the settlement movement, now you had the Likud Party on the side of the two-state solution. So that is an example of the tough decisions taken in 2002 that I think are now paying off."

One of the administration's "high priorities" is to now try to obtain an agreement between Palestinians and Israel as to what the Palestinian state will be like.

Rice was critical of the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, saying that it was easier to be a resistance movement than to be a government. She said, "Hamas is still a work in progress."

And finally turning to the political crisis in Lebanon where the election for the new president has been postponed 16 times, the secretary blamed it on "outside interference from Syria."

Ending on a somewhat optimistic note, Rice said she believed that the Lebanese would be allowed to elect a president.