WASHINGTON – The president’s nominee for secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, told senators at her confirmation hearing yesterday that America would use its diplomacy to advance the cause of freedom in the world during President Bush’s second term.

Invoking the words of a former Soviet dissident and current Israeli minister, Natan Sharansky, Ms. Rice said the world should apply the “town square test.”

“If a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, and physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society. And we cannot rest until every person living in a fear society has finally won their freedom,” she said.

Ms.Rice vigorously defended the administration’s actions in Iraq, saying “the ouster of Saddam Hussein was worth the price,” but she stopped short of laying out a timetable for American troops to return home.

“I think the goal is to get the mission accomplished, and that means that the Iraqis have to be capable of some things before we lessen our own responsibility,” she said.

The emphasis on democracy and freedom as a centerpiece of American diplomacy may have come as a surprise to some who speculated that she will emphasize restoring relations with Europe and temper bellicose rhetoric aimed at rogue states.

While Ms. Rice yesterday did not shun the idea of warming ties with France and Germany, she said that this diplomacy should advance a policy to spread democracy. “Alliances and multilateral institutions can multiply the strength of freedom-loving nations. If I am confirmed, that core conviction will guide my actions,” she said.

On many policies that have been advocated by the minority party and foreign policy elite, Ms. Rice demurred. For example, she did not commit the State Department to naming a special envoy to the Arab-Israeli conflict, although she stressed over and over again that America was prepared to help if both sides were willing to make peace.

While Ms. Rice said she saw the recent election of Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas as an “opportunity,” she also warned that Israel’s neighbors “cannot incite violence on the one hand and call for peace on the other.”

On Iran, Ms. Rice said in her opening remarks that America stood with the people of that country. When asked if American policy was one of regime change for the country, Ms. Rice said, “The goal of the administration is to have a regime in Iran that is responsive to concerns that we have about Iran’s policies, which are 180 degrees antithetical to our own interests at this point.” She specifically mentioned the country’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, harboring of Al Qaeda leaders, and support for Hezbollah.

Ms. Rice also referred to the regime’s “appalling human rights record” and said the Iranian people “suffer under a regime that has been completely unwilling to deal with their aspirations.”

Those words were quite different than those of Deputy Secretary of State Armitage, who told the same panel last year that America’s policy was not to seek regime change in Iran and in 2003 told the Los Angeles Times that Iran was a democracy.

On Syria, Ms. Rice spurned the advice of some senators to accept the help of Iraq’s neighbor in rebuilding the country. “I think that it’s fair to say that the Syrian government is behaving in a way that could, unfortunately, lead to long-term bad relations with the United States,” she said. She also added that it was time to enforce more sanctions against Damascus in the Syria Accountability Act.

Democratic senators in particular grilled Ms. Rice about Iraq. In a heated exchange with Senator Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee from Massachusetts, the senator cast doubt on whether the Iraqi elections scheduled for January 30 would lead to stability. He said he was concerned that the elections could stoke already heated ethnic divisions in Iraq.

Ms. Rice responded that even America’s Founding Fathers made mistakes when the nation was a young democracy. “I have not seen the Iraqis, or for that matter, the Afghans, make a compromise as bad as the one in 1789 that declared my ancestors to be three fifths of a man.”

Later Senator Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, peppered Ms. Rice on the torture of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison, stressing that America should not become as brutal as its enemies, at one point cutting her off by saying “Don’t become like them.”

Ms. Rice responded: “If we were like them, we would not have punished the people for Abu Ghraib. If we were like them, the president would not have apologized.”

Despite discomfort from Democrats, even the most critical yesterday conceded that Ms. Rice’s nomination would likely pass through the Senate committee. Senator Boxer, a Democrat from California, was so angry at Ms. Rice that she dressed her down for saying the South Asian tsunami was an opportunity to work with other nations. Still, Ms. Boxer conceded, “you no doubt will be confirmed.”

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will convene again this morning and is scheduled to vote on Ms. Rice’s nomination, which would make her the first African-American woman secretary of state. The chairman of the committee, Senator Lugar, a Republican from Indiana, said he expected a vote from the full Senate will take place tomorrow, the day President Bush is to be sworn in for a second term.