WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Rice dismissed Iran’s threats to disrupt energy supplies in a confrontation over its nuclear program, saying the Persian Gulf country is too dependent on revenue from oil.

Ms. Rice was reacting to remarks made earlier yesterday by the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said in a speech that America could “seriously endanger energy flow in the region” by making “any wrong move” to halt Iran’s nuclear development.

“We shouldn’t put too much emphasis on a threat of this kind,” Ms. Rice said on the “Fox News Sunday” program. “After all, Iran is also very dependent on oil revenue.”

Ms. Rice said that because Iran depends on oil revenue for about 80% of its budget, cutting output “would be a very serious problem for Iran.”

Iran pumps 3.85 million barrels a day of crude and is strategically located to shut off exports of about 17 million barrels a day of oil from the Gulf region through the Straits of Hormuz.

“We really do have to have this settled over a matter of weeks, not months,” Ms. Rice said on Fox. “We will not allow Iran to drag this out.”

“I hope it will be very clear to the Iranian government that this is the international community’s way of giving them an opportunity to resolve this impasse favorably, with a civil nuclear program that would be acceptable to the international community,” she said on CBS.