AROUND 500 people shouted and booed as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice walked into Blackburn Town Hall for a meeting with community leaders.

After being greeted by the Mayor of Blackburn with Darwen, Coun Yusuf Jan-Virmani, she spent 90 minutes with members of the town's Muslim community a fixture of the itinerary arranged at short notice after a request to visit a mosque was turned down by its leaders.

Dr Rice, who faced anti-war protests throughout the weekend, said: "I really did very much value the dialogue that we had.

"It was stimulating, it was interesting, it was candid, it was really quite wonderful.

"We started with an assertion with which I readily agreed that there is no difference or no conflict between Islamic values and democratic values, that in fact people who practice the Islamic faith live here in a great democracy as great participants in this democracy, as they do in the United States, as they do in India, in Indonesia and other places around the world.

"And we talked a lot about how we could further the opportunities for people to solve their differences by politics and by compromise and dialogue, and not by conflict and violence."

Earlier, at Blackburn Cathedral, the majority of the crowd outside applauded her arrival.

And at the Town Hall, a large number attempted to drown out the protesters.

On Sunday morning, instead of flying back to Washington, she and Mr Straw paid a surprise visit to Baghdad, the Iraq capital.

Coun Jan-Virmani, who recorded the press conference which was shown live around the world from the committee room normally using to discuss local issues such as planning on his own camera, said: "I am delighted she came.

"The fact people protested shows everyone is right to have an opinion.

"But she was made most welcome here."

She was shown around the cathedral by The Very Rev Christopher Armstrong, Dean of the cathedral.

Dr Rice watched a performance by members of the cathedral's male choir, before lighting a candle in memory of victims of natural disasters and war.

While she lit the candle, the Dean read a prayer and members of a female choir sang. Both Dr Rice and Mr Straw then signed the visitors' book.

The US Secretary of State had declared before coming that she was looking forward to tucking into some local delicacies.

During Mr Straw's visit to her home area of Birmingham, Alabama, he tucked into catfish, ribs and chocolate cream pie.

In Lancashire, lunch at Ewood Park consisted of Morecambe Bay shrimps, hot pot as main course and Lancashire cheese and biscuits for pudding.

Dr Rice, whose dedication to fitness leads her to get up at 4.30am to work out in a gym, passed on the final course.

Then, on Saturday at Hoghton Tower, she enjoyed sirloin steak so called because it a piece of beef was supposedly knighted there by King James I in 1617.

But again she skipped the Lancashire Cheesecake.

Dr Rice said: "I have enjoyed coming here immensely.

"It's really a very beautiful place. I had no idea what North West England looks like and it's really quite beautiful. The people have been warm and wonderful."