In a discussion with her Australian counterpart, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice compared President Reagan's fight against communism to the current war on terrorism, calling both generational struggles.

"I would hope what we would all be remembered for is having understood that struggle, having engaged in that struggle," Rice said Wednesday. "President Bush has mobilized this country for that fight."

Rice and Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer were guest speakers at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley. The discussion, called "Dialogue on Freedom," included media and audience questions.

The talk was marked by solidarity in diplomatic goals.

Rice and Downer, whose country has 1,500 troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, spent an hour talking to an audience of about 450 people. They discussed trying to bring the war in Iraq to a successful conclusion.

Rice praised Australia for engaging Tehran ahead of next week's talks between the United States and Iran. That meeting in Baghdad is designed to get the Islamic republic to cooperate in quelling Iraq's sectarian violence.

"We have the really very strong support of Australia," Rice said. "Because Australia has diplomatic relations, it's been able to deliver those messages directly."

Downer said he has stressed to Iran that it should commit to stability in Iraq during the talks, set to begin Monday.

"I've made the point to the Iranians that they need to think about their long-term strategic interest in Iraq," Downer said. "They don't want to see the collapse of the present government."

Rice started the discussion at the library with a short speech.

"Things are changing in international policy. ... If you recognize that threats must be confronted, good things do happen," Rice said. "They happen not just because of the strength of the United States, but the strength of our friends and our alliances."

Rice and Downer started the day with a closed-door meeting in a room adjacent to the late president's office. Former first lady Nancy Reagan still keeps an office in the quarters.

Both praised Nancy Reagan, who sat in the first row of the audience.

Recalling Reagan's famous Cold War call to the Soviet Union to tear down the Berlin Wall, Rice said that seemingly impossible changes in world politics were feasible, given courage and steadfastness.

"If you look back on history, many events that seemed impossible at the time, in retrospect, seem inevitable," Rice said. "Did anyone ever believe that the wall would come down? And indeed it did."

The two often remarked on the countries' longstanding friendship. To maintain that level of trust and sincerity "involves standing by your ally, not only when it is convenient, but also when it is inconvenient," Downer said.

He said Australia backed the United States in the war in Iraq because "not only is the United States the bedrock of foreign policy, we also did it because it was the right thing to do."

Downer continued, drawing parallels between past presidents and Bush. He said Bush shows courage, a quality also exhibited by Reagan. He recalled the time that Reagan labeled the Soviet Union an "evil empire."

"That seemed to be an unpopular view at the time, but he's the man who won the Cold War," Downer said.

He also mentioned President Truman's low approval ratings toward the end of his presidency.

"The Korean War was unpopular," he said. "But he made decisions for the medium and long-term, which I think were enormously important."

Rice traced international politics and the United States' relations with Australia from World War I, the Korean War, to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. But the war on terrorism was the top issue in their discussion.

"I get up every day and I recognize that we are still in danger, because the terrorists only have to be right once," Rice said. "We have to be right 100 percent of the time, and that's not fair fighting."

Downer, at Rice's invitation, is making a short visit to California. They were later to visit U.S. Marines at Camp Pendleton. They plan to visit Northern California's Silicon Valley today before Downer returns to Australia.

Wire services contributed to this report.