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Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told interviewers shortly after the Sept. 11 attack, the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi arose from a demonstration against an anti-Islamic film made in California. She has said she was using "talking points" provided by the intelligence community.

The administration has since said the attack was a planned act of terror.

Responding to Republican questions, Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "People have accused Ambassador Rice and the administration of misleading Americans. ... Nothing could be further from the truth." She said State Department officials in Washington held off interviewing U.S. evacuees from Benghazi to avoid interfering with the FBI, which was talking to the evacuees as part of an investigation.

She said the FBI was "following some very important leads" about who participated in the Benghazi attack.

Clinton told the panel the administration did not know there was no demonstration "until days after the attack." Investigators are still trying to pin down the exact events, she said.

Clinton also told the panel she could not confirm terrorists killed in Algeria were involved in the Libyan attack.

"This information is coming from the Algerian government related to their questioning of certain of the terrorists that they took alive," she said. We don't have any way to confirm it as yet, but I can certainly assure you, we will do everything we can to determine that.

"You may know that [FBI] Director [Robert] Mueller was just in the region meeting with leaders. He's very well aware that we have to track every one of these connections. And this will be a new thread that will be followed."

The attack on an Algerian gas plant last week left at least 37 foreign hostages dead, Algerian officials said. Algerian forces killed at least 29 of the 32 kidnappers to end the hostage crisis.

Clinton also told the Senate panel she did not see requests for extra security in Libya prior to the Sept. 11 attack.

She said she did not deny any requests, and procedures were being put in place that any future secretary would see such security messages.

Clinton's voice broke with emotion as she talked about the families of the victims of the Benghazi consulate attack.

U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attack.

"I directed our response from the State Department," she told the panel. Citing an administrative review board report, she said there were "no delays in decision-making, no denials of support from the Pentagon or the administration ... the board said our response saved lives and it did."

She also stressed that on the day of the attack, "In that same period, we were seeing violent attacks on our embassies" across North Africa. She cited a demonstration in Cairo in which protesters were trying to climb over the U.S. Embassy walls.

Clinton said the United States must still be represented in dangerous places.

"Let me underscore the importance of the United States continuing to lead in North Africa and around the world," she said. " That is why I sent Chris Stevens to Libya. ... He knew the risks ... [but] they cannot work in bunkers and do their jobs. That's why we must do everything possible" to give them security.

Clinton also said the attack didn't happen in a vacuum, citing the problems created within the security apparatus of the region caused by the various government revolutions.

Clinton, her voice breaking, said to her the attack was personal, noting she stood beside President Obama as the caskets of the four people killed in the attack, including Stevens, were returned to the United States.