BRUSSELS - The expanding NATO alliance can be a bulwark for freedom without playing policeman to the world, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said as she neared the end of a European tour that included visits to both old and newer NATO members.

"How NATO's role will evolve, I think, is still an open question, but we need to be open to new roles that NATO might play," Rice said Tuesday in Paris.

She visits alliance headquarters today for an informal luncheon with NATO foreign ministers.

Shortly before flying from Paris to Brussels, Rice told an interviewer that Iran needs to realize it cannot use a European diplomatic initiative to indefinitely delay having the United Nations consider its suspected nuclear weapons program.

"The Iranians need to hear that if they are unwilling to take the deal ... the Europeans are giving ... then the Security Council referral looms," she said in an interview with Fox News.

"I don't know that anyone has said that as clearly as they should to the Iranians," she said in a reiteration of U.S. policy.

Alliance officials said her NATO visit would focus on preparations for a visit by President Bush on Feb. 22, when he will hold a summit with leaders of the other 25 allied nations.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer wants the meetings to seal a new unity in the trans-Atlantic alliance following bitter divisions over the Iraq war.

The talks are also expected to review NATO's peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo and its efforts to train Iraq's military. De Hoop Scheffer said last month's elections in Iraq - which were widely applauded in Europe - should boost allied efforts to expand its training mission.

Alliance defense ministers are set to discuss expanding both the Afghan and Iraq missions at a long-scheduled meeting today and Thursday.

NATO has been struggling to persuade governments to commit extra troops to both its missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, the problem has been compounded by the refusal of France, Germany and other nations that opposed the U.S.-led war to send instructors.