Rice's European trip clouded by Iran

Two days into her week-long tour, Rice has been besieged by questions about US policy towards the Islamic Republic's suspected nuclear weapons program and bleak human rights record.

She has tried to ease European fears the Americans might launch a pre-emptive military strike and has warded off queries on whether Washington was officially seeking regime change in Tehran.

She has heard suggestions the United States is undermining the nuclear negotiatons by keeping quiet, or alternatively compromising the talks by speaking out too loudly on human rights.

The persistent probing and inconclusive US response have forced Rice on the defensive, where she had hoped to put Tehran. "It is the Iranians that are isolated on this issue, not the United States," she pleaded Friday.

This was not entirely the trip envisioned by one of US President George W. Bush's most trusted aides when she embarked on a tour of eight European capitals, Israel and the West Bank.

The trip, a warm-up to Bush's own European swing later this month, was billed as a fence-mending mission aimed at capitalizing on the success of Iraq's national elections and new momentum in the Middle East peace process.

But on the plane over, Rice turned the focus on Iran with unusually harsh criticism of the mullahs in Tehran, calling their treatment of their people "something to be loathed".

She also raised eyebrows by ducking repeated questions on regime change -- even as her spokesman in Washington was telling reporters that officials "have been very clear that we do not have a policy of regime change toward Iran."

Officials traveling with Rice would neither confirm nor deny whether a new, more muscular policy towards Iran was in the works. But they acknowledged at least a change in tone on the issue of democratic reforms.

"The president and the secretary have made it more explicit that we support the aspirations of the Iranian people to control their own government," said a senior official, who asked not to be named.