France is "curious" about Condi

The Independent UK:

Ms Rice will... focus on ... mending fences with Europe. Nowhere is she expected with more curiosity than in France. The Secretary of State has made known that her speech in Paris on Tuesday night will deliver the "keynote" message of her trip.

It was Ms Rice, at the height of the frenzy in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, who said that Washington should distinguish between allies who opposed the war: "We should placate Russia, ignore Germany and punish France," she was reported as saying.

French officials see her choice of Paris for the keynote speech as an acceptance that, whatever Fox News may say, France matters.

They expect her speech to lay out a combative, albeit nuanced, version of President Bush's good-vs-evil vision of world affairs. But they also expect her to say that the US is ready to consult with the rest of the democratic world.

"We don't know clearly what Condoleezza Rice represents," one French diplomat said. "Colin Powell was not running US foreign policy, but neither was she."

Although France responded with public enthusiasm to last week's Iraq elections. President Chirac's multipolar view of the world is unchanged and largely incompatible with that of Mr Bush.

However, French officials point out, much has changed since the war. It is significant, they say, that Britain is now lined up with its European partners against the US on issues from Iran to China, from global warming to African debt. Paris remains sceptical, however, that there will be a shift in US diplomatic thinking. One official said Ms Rice's tour was little different from tours made by Mr Powell and President Bush in the year before the Iraq invasion.