WASHINGTON - The United States needs to explore more for oil at home and tap nuclear power as part of a comprehensive energy policy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview aired Friday.

Speaking to CNBC television during a visit to California, Rice also dismissed fears that the US economy was losing its competitive edge to China and India.

"It's very important that we diversify (energy) supply," Rice said in the interview taped Thursday.

"We say we want to be less addicted to foreign oil, but then we say to oil producers you have to increase supply rather than thinking about what we can do at home to increase supply.

"The ability to use our domestic resources, our domestic sources of oil would be a very important part of that.

"It was also important for the United States to increase its oil refining capacity.

"Nuclear energy is another clean technology that we should be using and exploring," she said.

"We simply have put ourselves into a situation in which it's hard to break our addiction to oil," Rice added.

Rice acknowledged the United States was experiencing hard times but sought to dispel any ideas that the US economy was losing its competitive edge to the booming Chinese and Indian economies.

"I can count many, many times that people have said that America had lost its competitive edge," Rice said, recalling claims in the 1980s that the United States was losing out to Japan.

"So there have been many premature sentences for America losing its competitive edge."Rice also called for "comprehensive immigration reform" that will secure US borders while maintaining the US tradition of offering opportunities to immigrants who work hard and bring fresh ideas.

She regretted that the last session of Congress was unable to agree on reform.

"But I believe this country is going to have to have enlightened immigration policies if we're going to stay this strong competitive, open magnet for the best and brightest around the world that we've been," Rice said.

Rice was interviewed while on a tour of high-tech companies in northern California Thursday and Friday with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. - AFP/vm