US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that there was no indication of "warming of relations" with Iran despite the US drop on Friday of its opposition to Iran's bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"There isn't any indication here of warming of relations" with Iran, Rice said in an interview with The Washington Times, the first interview with a newspaper by Rice since becoming the secretary of state six weeks ago.

The transcript of the interview was published by the Times on Saturday.

On Friday, Rice announced in a statement that the United Stateshas agreed to give up its objection to Iran's bid to join the WTO and allow some sales of civilian aircraft parts to Iran to support European Union's diplomatic efforts to solve the nuclear standoff with Tehran.

But Rice said that her country has a lot of issues with Iran. "We have a lot of issues with Iran. It's not just the nuclear issue .Our challenge is to continue to speak to the aspirations of the Iranian people even as we deal with near-term issues like the Iranian nuclear program," she added.

She said that the US president is determined "not to lose the emphasis on the rights and the aspirations of all people, including the Iranian people, to live in freedom."

Xinhua