PARIS, Feb 8 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged closer EU-US ties Tuesday ahead of a meeting with French President Jacques Chirac -- the most prominent European ally who opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq.
In a speech in Paris considered the headline event of a whirlwind eight-day tour of European nations and Israel and the Palestinian territories, Rice called for "a new chapter" to open in the transatlantic alliance.
She also warned that, in the Arab world, "the status quo is not going to be acceptable" and called on Europe to march with the United States in spreading democracy to the Middle East.
Her hectic pace and carefully chosen words were designed to prepare the ground for a February 21-24 European trip by US President George W. Bush, who has signalled he intends to use his second four-year term repairing European relations strained by his decision to go to war with Iraq.
"This is a time of unprecedented opportunity for our transatlantic partnership," Rice said in a speech at a prestigious political studies institute in the French capital.
"It is time to turn away from the disagreements of the past. It is time to open a new chapter in our relationship, and a new chapter in our alliance," she said.
"America stands ready to work with Europe on our common agenda, and Europe must stand ready to work with America. After all, history will surely judge us not by our old disagreements but our new achievements."
She urged a dialogue to establish a common agenda on issues ranging from terrorism and nuclear non-proliferation to the Middle East, development and the spread of democracy around the world.
Repeatedly, she cast US policies as based on a desire to end "tyranny", but steered clear of linking that to Iraq by name and did not make any mention of Washington's original claims that supposed weapons of mass destruction necessitated the military action.
Rice underlined the relatively successful elections held January 30 in Iraq and put the accent on the US and its NATO allies moving forward to consolidate that breakthrough.
"There is much more to do to create a unified and democratic Iraq, and Iraqis themselves must lead the way," she said. "But we in the transatlantic partnership must rise to the challenge the Iraqi people have set for us," she said.
But the chief US diplomat, in response to questions posed by students at the institute, said change had to be encouraged in the Arab world at large.
"We have a level of helplessness that has produced an ideology of hatred so thorough and so virulent ... that this cannot be the future of the Middle East.
"Security and moral concern tell us that this is a part of the world that cannot be insulated from the dignity and prosperity that freedom brings. People in those societies are just tired of being denied their freedom," she said.
Aides to Rice said she chose Paris for the crowning speech of her first trip as secretary of state because of its intellectual milieu and its place in the vanguard of opposition to the war and to a dominating US presence in the world.
"The US welcomes the growing unity of Europe. America has everything to gain from having a stronger Europe as a partner in building a safer, and a better world," Rice said.
Part of that included working towards peace between Israelis and Palestinians -- a prospect that received a fillip Tuesday with the announcement of a ceasefire by both sides.
Though there are "deep divisions to overcome" she said "this is the best chance for peace we are likely to see for years to come and we are acting to help Israelis and Palestinian seize this chance."
At her meeting with Chirac -- who sent an aide to show her inside his official palace -- she was to discuss Iraq, the Middle East and a February 21 dinner Chirac and Bush are to have in Brussels on the eve of EU and NATO summits, French officials said.
The Paris visit was the seventh stop of a whirlwind eight-day tour that had taken her to London, Berlin, Warsaw, Ankara, Jerusalem and the West Bank, and Rome. On Wednesday she was scheduled to go to Brussels and Luxembourg before heading back to Washington.
02/08/2005 19:29 GMT - AFP