IRAQ
Turning to Iraq's developing democracy, Rice said Iraqi leaders are "sitting down to form a government of national unity" and "developing a program by which this national government will actually govern."
"They are developing rules and institutions that they will use to govern and they are looking at what jobs will be held by whom. So this is a complicated process that is likely to push them very much further forward once it is completed," she said.
In a separate interview on CBS's Face the Nation, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said President Bush "has made it very clear" that Iraqi leaders need to form a unity government as soon as possible.
"It is important that the Iraqi people see all the sectarian communities joining in a unity government," he said, but at the same time, "you've got to get it right, and we think they're making progress."
Rice acknowledged on NBC's Meet the Press that violence continues to plague the country, but noted that "under the specter of this violence, you have Iraqis now, Sunni, Shia, Kurds and others, determined to form a government of national unity."
"That's extraordinary in Iraq's history where they've always settled their differences by violence, not by politics. And when they succeed in that, they are going to have the basis for a very different kind of Iraq," she said.
In response to a question, Rice addressed the issue of a report that suggests Russia may have passed intelligence information to Saddam Hussein's regime in advance of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
"[W]e take very seriously any suggestion that a foreign government may have passed information to the Iraqis prior to the American invasion that might have put our troops in danger," she said, adding that the United States would raise the matter with the Russian government after conducting a thorough review of relevant documents.
For more information, see Iraq Update.