BRUSSELS, Nov 16 (AFP) - Europe Tuesday mourned the resignation of the moderate Colin Powell as US secretary of state but pundits said his hawkish likely replacement, Condoleezza Rice, would at least prove more effective.
European reactions ranged from effusive praise for the man who represented "the last hope on this side of the Atlantic" to hard-nosed calculations that whatever his own merits, Powell never had the ear of President George W. Bush.
In that regard, Rice, despite being seen as a hardliner in a Bush administration not known for its emollience, can at least be guaranteed to deliver on policy, commentators said.
"Sure Powell will be sorely missed because he's somebody whose world view is much more in tune with other leaders in Europe and around the world," said Steven Everts, a US-Europe expert at the Centre for European Reform in London.
"But on the big-ticket items such as Iraq his influence was limited. Rice is a very tough cookie. Her benefit is that she has the ear of the president. Powell never knew whether he could deliver," he told AFP.
The French government, the standard-bearer of European opposition to the war in Iraq, hoped that the changing of the guard at the State Department following Bush's recent re-election could heal transatlantic divisions.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, while paying tribute to the "true professional" Powell, said his likely successor is a "woman of character -- that's the least one can say".
"France has had very proper relations with her. If she is appointed we will continue to have the same relations," Barnier told Europe 1 radio.
"The moment has come to rebuild, to renew, the transatlantic relation in a balanced manner," he added.
Bush, who won a second mandate on November 2, accepted the resignation of the former top general who directed the 1991 war against Iraq but was only a lukewarm supporter of last year's invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.
Bush was expected Tuesday to nominate Rice, currently his national security advisor, as only the second woman to be picked for the top cabinet post after Madeleine Albright.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's closest ally in Europe, called Powell "a remarkable man who has been a good friend to this country over a very long period". His spokesman added that Blair has "immense regard" for Rice.
The British leader on Monday launched a passionate defence of the transatlantic alliance but also called on the United States to "reach out" to its international partners for the sake of world order.
But for some in Europe, bitterly disappointed that Bush defeated Democratic challenger John Kerry, Powell's departure is the last straw.
"For Europeans, the US secretary of state was the John Kerry of the Bush administration: the last hope on this side of the Atlantic and a man who stood for a reasonable and measured foreign policy," said German newspaper Die Welt.
In Italy, La Stampa said the resignation had ended any hope that Bush's second term "could be more moderate", looking ahead to US foreign policy under Rice with deep apprehension.
"We know her programme -- the Great Middle East, confrontation with Iran, zero Palestine, zero Europe -- and she is not a moderate," it said, saying Rice would herald the "confirmation of a more aggressive diplomacy".
But for the transatlantic expert Everts, predictions of doom and gloom now that Powell is going may be overblown.
"Condi Rice is quite a realist, less ideologically motivated than some in the administration. She'll be more open to the idea that for purely realpolitik reasons, America needs allies," he said.
11/16/2004 15:27 GMT - AFP