"I believe that both sides will get this worked out because both sides have a great interest in getting this done," Rice told reporters during a flight from the United States to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Rice said "there is still some time" to iron out differences with the Iraqis that are holding up a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which aims to govern the long-term presence of US troops in Iraq beyond 2008.

"The (UN) Security Council resolution expires at the end of the year but I don't think we want to get to that point. I think we want to get this done more quickly than that," Rice said.

The deal was originally supposed to have been sealed by the end of July.

It calls for pulling out US combat forces by the end of 2011 -- more than eight years after the invasion -- and includes US concessions on jurisdiction over its troops accused of "serious crimes" while off duty or off base.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Washington had now agreed to listen to requested changes to the controversial deal.

But the top US diplomat who said there were still "issues of jurisdiction" stopped short of committing the United States to considering the proposed changes.

"It's a good agreement, and we have done everything we can to make certain that ... our troops are protected and Iraqi sovereignty is respected," Rice said when asked if it was the last US offer.

The White House said the agreement, which has been the subject of months of tough negotiations, was more or less done, and any amendments would be merely fine-tuning.

Iraq warned earlier that it would not be bullied into signing the pact, despite US leaders warning of potentially dire consequences if it failed to approve the deal.

Rice did not directly answer the charges of bullying.

"What I would say is that Iraq has a strong interest in making sure that ... US forces can remain in Iraq long enough to secure the gains that have been made, and long enough for Iraqi security forces to be able to take on their rightful place defending Iraq," Rice said.

"But I don't think anybody believes that they are capable of doing that alone right now," Rice said.

Rice said the agreement was taking time to seal because Iraq was now a budding democracy.

"Part of it is that they (the Iraqi leadership) have decided to take it through several bodies, and as you take it through bodies, more and more questions get raised," Rice said.

"But I'm quite confident in the strength of this agreement," she said.

"It's an important agreement, it's an agreement that's both going to answer to questions of Iraqi sovereignty and is going to protect our troops," Rice said.

"And we believe that the work that the neogotiatiors have done has produced an agreement that has done both," she said.

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