Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice waits to speak at the National Press Club in Washington on October 15, 2010. Her appearance coincides with the publication of her new book about her childhood in racially segregated Birmingham, Alabama. UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is defending the Obama administration's foreign policy against attacks from fellow Republicans.

Rice met with President Barack Obama at the White House Friday while on a tour promoting "Extraordinary, Ordinary People," her memoir about her parents, the Washington Post reported. The White House said Obama wanted to discuss foreign policy with her.


Appearing at the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C., Friday evening, Rice said, "Nothing in this president's methods suggests this president is other than a defender of America's interests."

Rice's book, an account of growing up in segregated Birmingham, Ala., doesn't deal with the controversies of her service in the Bush administration. All week she has refused to join in criticism of the current administration while defending the decisions of the last one, including the invasion of Iraq.

Speaking to Fox News's Bill O'Reilly, she praised her successor, Hillary Clinton: "I think she is doing a lot of the right things. ... She is very tough ... I think she has done a fine job, I really do."

Rice has returned to California, where she is a professor at Stanford University and a fellow at the Hoover Institution.