Is it possible to claim the entire amount of foreign taxes paid as tax credit from form 1116, or does one first have to use the foreign income exclusion on form 2555 and then only apply the balance of foreign tax credit to income in excess of the excluded amount?

Yes, you do not have to use the exclusion. Sometimes it's more advantageous to only use the deduction/credit for foreign taxes paid, especially if you have high income (more than the exclusion).
However, if you used to exclusion before, you need to revoke it and in that case you would not be able to use it for 5 years.
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/article/0, id=182017,00.html

Foreign income exclusion form 2555 can only be used for earned income; can not be used for interest income,capital gains and dividends. If your earned income is more than the exclusion limit, for the balance earned income you can use Form 1116.