Rice begins confirmation for secretary of state

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice told senators Tuesday that a U.S. exit strategy from Iraq depends on that country's ability to defend itself against terrorists after this month's elections. She vowed to work to ease ties with allies frayed by U.S. policy there.\n"The world is coming together behind the idea that we have to succeed in Iraq," she asserted at a confirmation hearing on her nomination to replace Colin Powell in the top foreign policy post.\nStepping out from her largely behind-the-scenes role as President Bush's national security adviser, Rice said she could not give Congress a timetable for American disengagement.\n"The goal is to get the mission accomplished," Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We're right now focused on security for the (Jan. 30) election."\nRice said spreading democracy through the Middle East remains a top administration foreign-policy objective and said the Palestinian election earlier this month after the death of Yasser Arafat offers "a moment of opportunity."\nRice also said Palestinian leaders need to do more to end acts of terrorism against Israel, saying hopes of peace will be dashed if such violence continues.\nShe raised the possibility that Bush might name an envoy to the Palestinians but said timing was an issue. "No one has objections in principle" to such an envoy, she said, but Rice added that "it is a question over whether that is appropriate" at this time.\nWhereas the confirmation of Rice was all but assured, committee Democrats used the hearing to vent criticism of Bush's Iraq policies.\nSen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the unsuccessful 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, challenged Rice's claim that the right number of troops were in Iraq and criticized the administration's postwar policies.\n"We do have some big tactical challenges to get to the strategic goals that we have," she replied. The course of U.S. policy on Iraq "was always going to have ups and downs," Rice said.\nIf confirmed, Rice, 50, would be the first black woman, and only the second woman after Madeleine Albright, to be America's top diplomat.\nRice said there remain "outposts of tyranny" in the world that require close attention, citing North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Belarus, Zimbabwe and Myanmar, also known as Burma.\n"We must remain united in insisting that Iran and North Korea abandon their nuclear weapons ambitions and choose instead the path of peace," she added.\nRice cited her background, growing up in segregated Birmingham, Ala., as the granddaughter of a poor cotton farmer. "I am especially indebted to those who fought and sacrificed in the civil rights movement so that I could be here today," said Rice.\nShe praised Powell as "my friend and mentor." Powell was often out of step with Bush's inner circle.\nRice, who is Bush's most trusted foreign policy confidante, pledged to engage in a major bout of "public diplomacy in all of its forms" if confirmed.\n"The time for diplomacy is now," she said in a remark that appeared aimed at critics who accuse the administration of go-it-alone tactics.\nThat brought a sharp retort from the panel's senior Democrat, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware: "The time for diplomacy is long overdue."\nBiden told her the United States is "paying a heavy price" for the administration's policy in Iraq.\nRice insisted the administration's actions in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks were "difficult, and necessary and right"