Having won NATO endorsement to stay the course despite a new U.S. intelligence assessment that concludes Iran stopped its atomic weapons development program in 2003, Rice was to meet Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who has become the public face of opposition to new U.N. sanctions.

On the sidelines of a NATO meeting already beset by alliance differences with Russia over U.S. plans for European missile defense and troop deployments in Europe, Rice and Lavrov were to discuss Washington's surprising revision of its view of Iran's nuclear work. The National Intelligence Estimate, released Monday, credited intense diplomatic activity for Iran's decision on weapons.

"The point that I'm emphasizing to people is that it was international pressure that got the Iranians to halt their program," Rice said.

"This suggests that you ought to keep up that international pressure," she told reporters on her way to Belgium for her first face-to-face talks on the matter with foreign officials since the intelligence report became public.

NATO members agreed, reaching consensus over a working dinner Thursday that "we should not change our position," Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht said.

Earlier Thursday, the leaders of NATO allies France and Germany expressed similar sentiments, calling for a two-pronged approach of pressure and negotiations with Iran.

"I think we are in a process and that Iran continues to pose a danger," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Paris at a joint news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy said he backs new sanctions. "The threat exists," he said.

But Lavrov on Wednesday said Moscow had not seen any evidence that Iran had, in fact, ever had a nuclear weapons program, not even one that it had given up on four years ago. He also criticized the United States for its missile defense plans.

Still, along with China, which also has opposed new U.N. sanctions, Russia appeared isolated on Iran, which long has denied it is seeking nuclear weapons and declared that the U.S. intelligence report was a "victory" for the country.

Rice said she saw no reason for major policy moves.

"I don't see that the NIE changes the course that we're on," she said.

"In fact, I would think given the assessment that Iran is indeed susceptible to coordinated international pressure that (this) is the right approach," she said.

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