d Israel's explanation of its plans to add 3,500 housing units to the Maaleh Adumim settlement east of Jerusalem was "not really a satisfactory response."

"We have noted our concerns to the Israelis," she added.

Her blunt remarks were a signal that the administration does not want the Sharon government to make concessions to Israeli settlers, although the government is under tremendous political pressure from the right as it prepares to withdraw settlers and troops from Gaza this summer, analysts said.

On other issues, Rice claimed that new U.S.-European cooperation had brought progress in diplomatic efforts to force Iran to give up nuclear enrichment activities, but she said that the Iranians had yet to take "some very clear steps they could take" to end suspicions they are seeking a nuclear weapon.

Rice also confirmed that the administration wanted to end the right of all non-nuclear states to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes - a right guaranteed under the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - claiming that it posed too great a risk for proliferation.

Discussing the Arab-Israel issue, Rice emphasized that despite recent progress, the peace effort remains at a "fragile" stage and that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas needs help as he tries to reform the Palestinian government and bring its security services under control.

She said U.S. officials had told the Israelis that they have obligations under the peace plan, known as the road map, not to expand settlements. She said U.S. officials expect that the Israelis "are going to be careful about anything," including settlements, new laws, or the route of a barrier that separates them from the Palestinians, which could affect the outcome of the final peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

"We will continue to note that this [settlement expansion] is at odds with ... American policy. So, full stop," she said.

She said both sides needed to work on the immediate tasks before them, but they are on the threshold of a major advance toward peace.

With a withdrawal from Gaza and Palestinian reform, "we will be in a fundamentally different situation in several months, and I think we will be very advanced in terms of where we would be in relations to the road map," she said.

Rice spoke on the day the United States was bringing to a vote in the U.N. Security Council a resolution that would increase the number of peacekeepers in the Sudan to 10,000. Washington was forced to separate that issue, which was less controversial, from its proposal to sanction the Sudanese leadership, which has been rejected by the Russians and the Chinese.

"We have been, frankly, disappointed that there are those who don't seem to know - see the need for this kind of sanctions resolution," Rice said. "We're working with the Chinese and the Russians and others who have been reluctant to have one, and hopefully we can get a sanctions resolution fairly soon."

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