On The Second Day Of...

    

LONDON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seeks on Friday to repair ties with Europe over Iraq but her tough line on Iran risks undermining transatlantic attempts to heal the rift on her first trip as the top U.S. diplomat.

En route to London, where she will meet on Friday with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Rice made clear the United States was unwilling to become involved in Europe's nuclear arms talks with Iran as the region wants.

"The Iranians know what they need to do. It's not the absence of anybody's involvement that is keeping the Iranians from knowing what they need to do," she told reporters aboard her plane.

"They need to live up to their obligations, they need to agree to verification inspection, they need to stop trying to hide activities under cover of civilian nuclear power."

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Some European editorial writers have warned Iran could spark a divisive replay of the American-led Iraq invasion, which caused probably the worst U.S.-European split since World War II.
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"The Iranian regime's human rights behavior and its behavior toward its own population is something to be loathed," she said. "I don't think anybody thinks that the unelected mullahs who run that regime are a good thing for either the Iranian people or for the region."

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