Rice's first gambit: fix frayed ties to Europe

Her comments during the trip stressing the importance of America's European allies have also fed hopes that the Bush administration may now be readier to listen to its friends.

"There is a very real change in atmospherics," says François Heisbourg, head of the Foundation for Strategic Research, a think tank in Paris. "But that doesn't mean that we have a common project.

"There is general agreement that there is little to be gained by trading brickbats, so there is a reconciliation between Europe and the United States by default," he adds.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington's firmest European ally, voiced such hopes clearly at the World Economic Forum last month. "If America wants the rest of the world to be part of the agenda it has set, it must be part of their agenda too," he warned.

High on that agenda, Mr. Blair said, is global warming. But the US has shown no sign of softening its opposition to the Kyoto Protocol, which aims to limit greenhouse gases. Blair has championed the treaty, which takes effect next week.

"It is not at all clear that the Bush administration is willing to change any policies to accommodate the Europeans," says Hurst Hannum, professor of international law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford, Mass.

The two sides' policies on Iran, for example, which both European and US leaders fear is trying to develop nuclear weapons, remain far apart.

Although US officials say they support the European Union's policy of negotiating incentives with Tehran to dissuade the theocratic government from enriching uranium, Washington has steadfastly stayed out of the talks.

European diplomats say privately that even if they succeed in persuading the Iranians to abandon their uranium-enrichment program, no deal would mean anything without US participation.

The EU's plans to abandon a 15-year-old arms embargo against China - expected to be lifted later this year - is another point of contention. Nor can Washington expect any help in Iraq, though Germany and France have offered to train Iraqi policemen outside the country.

One point of common ground, suggests Mr. Heisbourg, could be the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rice announced Monday that both Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon and Mr. Abbas would visit Washington this spring.

Another area of agreement could be defusing India's dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir, says Professor Hannum. But different perspectives could make deep cooperation difficult.

"I don't see things getting any worse [in the transatlantic relationship] over the next few years," Hannum predicts. "But I'm not at all certain they'll get any better."

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