WASHINGTON — Iraq is not on track to become another Iran despite the disconcerting images last week of Iraqis burning American flags and chanting “Death to America,” Secretary of State Rice said yesterday.

“I have no doubt that this is an Iraqi government and an Iraq that is going to be a fierce fighter in the war against terrorism, because they themselves are experiencing the effects of terror on their population,” Ms. Rice said. “I have no doubt that this is going to be a government that is on the right side in the war on terror.”

The protests in Baghdad on Friday were organized by an anti-American cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, in response to fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah. Crowds of Sadr supporters from across Iraq’s Shiite heartland chanted “Death to Israel, Death to America” in the one of the biggest pro-Hezbollah rallies since the conflict began July 12.

Ms. Rice, during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” was asked whether America has helped create another fundamentalist Islamic regime in Iraq, such as the one in Iran. Ms. Rice said she did not like what the protesters said, but she believes that Iraq today is better off than when sectarian differences were oppressed through the iron rule of Saddam Hussein.

“That people would go out and demonstrate and say what they feel is the one sign that perhaps Iraq is one place in the Middle East where people are exercising their right to free speech,” she said. “No. I don’t like what they said.”

She said she thinks that as Iraq becomes more stable and democratic “you won’t have demonstrations of that kind.”

“The notion that somehow Iraq under Prime Minister [al-Maliki] and his government is something akin to Iran is just not right. It’s just erroneous,” Ms. Rice said.

Ms. Rice also disputed suggestions that civil war is more likely than democracy.

But two senators appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation” both gave much more pessimistic assessments.

“This is a civil war. I think the generals, the other day, were cautious in their language. But I think they were telling us something loud and clear to anyone who wanted to listen,” Senator Dodd, a Democrat of Connecticut, said. “I frankly don’t believe that U.S. military people can necessarily play referee in that kind of a situation.”

Senator Hagel, a Republican of Nebraska, shared the gloomy assessment.

“I think where we go from here, with all the problems and inconsistencies, is a cold, hard assessment that Iraq is not going to turn out the way that we were promised it was,” Mr. Hagel said. “That’s a fact, not because I say it. That’s where it’s going, just as the general said it very honestly, I think, this week, before the Congress.”

Both senators encouraged more involvement and discussions with other countries in the Middle East. Mr. Hagel said President Bush should get his father and President Clinton involved in a regional summit. But he also acknowledged that the prospects for success would be unlikely.

“There are no good options here, no good options,” said Mr. Hagel, a possible presidential candidate in 2008.

[A suicide bomber blew himself up among mourners at a funeral in Saddam’s hometown yesterday evening, killing at least 10 people and wounding 18, police told the Associated Press. Sixteen more people died in political or sectarian violence elsewhere in Iraq.

Also yesterday, several Marines were wounded and a few vehicles were destroyed by a suicide car bombing in Anbar province, the American military said without further details. Iraqi police said the attack was in Fallujah, a heavily guarded city 40 miles west of Baghdad.

The clashes occurred as American reinforcements have begun patrolling in Baghdad to help stem sectarian attacks. Much of the violence has been blamed on militias, and a showdown between American troops and the gunmen is likely in the coming weeks.

In the Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah, security forces fired warning shots to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who burned tires and blocked roads to protest high fuel prices and poor living conditions.Three people were injured in the protest in the town of Chamchamal.]