WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice leaves Thursday on a tour of Europe and the Middle East seeking to ease transatlantic strains and boost Washington's profile in the Arab-Israeli peace process.
Rice was to hold talks in eight European countries and deliver a major speech in Paris, the hub of opposition to the Iraq war, in her first foray abroad as chief US diplomat.
The whirlwind week-long swing will be sandwiched around stops in Israel and the Palestinian territories in a bid to stoke the momentum of peace efforts that have taken on new life in the last two months.
Armed with the success of the weekend elections in Iraq, Rice will prepare for President George W. Bush's European swing later this month aimed at patching up US alliances torn by the March 2003 invasion.
Her trip will also be the first test of how well Rice can sell to an often sceptical world the tough pre-emptive security policies she helped craft as Bush's national security adviser and one of his closest aides.
Rice, 50, who took over the helm of US diplomacy last week from the popular Colin Powell, will travel to Britain, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Israel, the West Bank, Italy, France, Belgium and Luxembourg.
The highlight will be Paris, a hotbed of US criticism, where she will confer with President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, and make the centerpiece speech of her trip next Tuesday.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the secretary deliberately chose the often-antagonistic French capital to present her view of US-European relations, current policy and future prospects.
"She wanted to do it in Paris because she felt Paris was one of the places where there's a lot of debate and discussion about the US, about Europe, about common goals, about how we achieve our agenda," Boucher said.
Officials said Rice's European trip was aimed at crafting a common agenda with US allies on issues ranging from terrorism to coordination of Middle East peace efforts and the development of European institutions.
Washington hoped the large turnout Sunday by Iraqi voters braving violence and intimdiation would generate a new spirit of international cooperation on issues such as the training of Iraqi security forces.
Boucher expected no major shifts but said: "We hope the demonstration of the Iraqi people's desire for democracy, despite the adversity and difficulty of that, would inspire some of them (the allies) to support that desire."
Also on the agenda for Rice's talks was the halting diplomatic effort by France, Britain and Germany to persuade Iran to renounce its suspected efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
The United States has stayed largely on the sidelines while suggesting taking the matter to the UN Security Council and refusing to rule out eventual military action.
One issue that could produce new friction between the United States and the Europeans was the prospect that the EU could lift its 15-year-old arms embargo against China.
Countries such as Britain, France and Germany back the move. The United States is strongly opposed because of Beijing's human rights record and the possibility such weapons might be used against Taiwan.
In the Middle East, Rice was expected to meet with the new Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and was also likely to see Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon although there was no official confirmation.
Rice signaled over the weekend Washington's intention to take a more active role in the peace process, seizing what it calls a window of opportunity since Abbas replaced the late Yasser Arafat earlier this month.
The Americans were heartened by Abbas' move to clamp down on anti-Israeli attacks and press for a ceasefire while the Jewish state planned to pull its forces out of the Gaza Strip and some West Bank cities.
"The conditions are now emerging for movement back onto the road map and for movement toward a two-state solution," Rice said over the weekend, referring to the US-backed peace blueprint drafted in 2003.
"A lot of pieces are starting to come into place. And I intend to go there and work with the parties to see if we can bring them all together," she said.

02/01/2005 06:13 GMT - AFP