US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has said America is serious about reforms in allied Middle East countries.

The US expects from its allies in the region "that they take seriously the issues of reforms...of civil society, the spread of freedom in their own societies, economic opportunity, opportunity for women," she said at the Institute of Peace in Washington yesterday.

"And while we don't expect that any of this will proceed rapidly because democratic change sometimes comes slowly, it can't be enforced from the outside," she said.

The US, Rice said, believes very strongly in dialogue between civil society and government as being one of the most important pillars of the beginnings of democratic development. She said at the recent G-8 meeting "the United States was most insistent that this not be a dialogue between governments but a dialogue among civil society, and, indeed, between government and civil society."

On relations between US and Muslim countries generally, she said there is a small minority of extremists in the Muslim world who indeed hate and will always hate America.

"They hate our policies, our values, our freedoms, our very way of life When that hatred is expressed through terrorist violence, there is only one proper response, and that response is that we must find them and defeat them, defeat those who seek to kill our people and to harm our country."

Rice said there are some one billion people in the world who profess the Islamic faith, and the evidence about their attitudes towards the US is far from conclusive. A great many Muslims still come to the US every year in search of a better life, and surveys show that a great many more would do so if they could.

Yet surveys of Muslims also show that large majorities of them fear American power or mistrust intentions or misunderstand American values, she added. These views, she said, pose a serious challenge to the US

At their worst and most intense, they create a climate of bitterness and grievance in which extremism finds a sympathetic ear. Such views can hold entire societies captive to failed ideologies and prevent millions of people from joining in the progress and prosperity of our times, she said.

The consequences for much of the Muslim world are stagnation, persistent poverty and a lack of freedom. Dispelling these myths and instilling trust is a difficult and long-term proposition, she added.