Rice appears more blunt than Powell

Condoleezza Rice began her term as the US Secretary of State with a tour of Europe and the Middle East last month that showed off her skills as a fence-mender. The weeks that have followed have revealed another side of her style. After clashing with the Egyptians, Rice cancelled a visit to Cairo. Amid tensions with the Canadians days later, she abruptly postponed a trip to Ottawa. She recalled the US ambassador to Syria within 24 hours of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, as accusations swirled of Syrian involvement.

And Rice has spoken publicly in blunt terms rarely heard from her predecessor, Colin L. Powell. "States that don't recognise that the Middle East is changing, and, indeed, try to halt that change ... need to be isolated and condemned,'' she said in a recent PBS interview.

The tough new tone is just one of the changes that have been occurring in Foggy Bottom since President Bush's former national security adviser was sworn in on January 26.

Among other changes, Rice has begun assembling an inner circle that will assert close control over key diplomatic issues. She also is seeking to speed decision-making and hasten action. Above all, she is trying to reshape an administration's foreign policy that has had many voices so that it has just one — that of Bush, her boss and confidant.

Because of Bush's strong support, many predict Rice will be an unusually powerful secretary. She is likely to have less competition in influencing foreign policy from Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who is increasingly focused on internal Pentagon reform. At the same time, Vice-President Dick Cheney is expected to continue to wield major, if often unseen, influence. Last week, a longtime Cheney ally, State Department arms control chief John R. Bolton, was nominated to be US ambassador to the United Nations.

With none of her newly appointed assistant secretaries yet at their posts, Rice is only beginning to make changes at the department. Yet some differences from her predecessor are already visible.

Restoring relationships

In his four years, Powell often felt his role was diplomatic "damage control'', in the words of one former top aide — restoring relationships strained by clashes over the Iraq war and other issues. Powell's public language was shaded with nuance, and he often stressed both sides of issues.

During her tour of Europe and the Middle East in the opening days of her tenure, Rice showed that she could charm the French and the Germans. But she also demonstrated that, like Bush, she was willing to deliver a message in public that the other side might not like.

In February during an appearance with the Egyptian foreign minister in Washington, Rice offended many Egyptians by saying the United States had "very strong concerns'' over the jailing of opposition leader Ayman Nour. Two weeks later, she called off her trip to Cairo because of Nour and what the Bush administration views as the Egyptian government's sluggish efforts to push for democratic reform in the region. Recently, under international pressure, the Egyptians released Nour on bail.

She has put off a visit to Ottawa amid friction over Canada's decision late last month not to join the US missile defence programme. US officials blamed a "scheduling conflict'', but the move was widely read in Canada as a sign of Rice's unhappiness with the missile defence decision.

Although many Cabinet officials hesitate to be blunt for fear the boss might have a different view, Rice is more confident. Rice's directness has been a hit with conservatives who believe State Department officials too often paper over differences when they need to get tough.

With Rice echoing Bush's message, it will gain added force around the world, diplomats say. There already are signs that Rice will put more decision-making on key issues in the hands of her inner circle, most of whom work on the seventh floor of the State Department building.

Powell, with long experience managing vast US military organisations, believed in empowering the chain of command at the State Department to solve diplomatic problems. He described them as "field commanders''.

Rice is returning to the management model used by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who held the post under President George H.W. Bush. Baker focused on a handful of top issues, hoping to win diplomatic victories and favourable headlines, while leaving other matters to the staff.

Rice's inner circle includes three veteran diplomats who have worked closely with her and are generally seen as pragmatic internationalists. They are Deputy Secretary Robert B. Zoellick, the former US trade representative; R. Nicholas Burns, recently the US ambassador to Nato; and Philip D. Zelikow, a lawyer, diplomat and historian who was staff director of the September 11 commission.

She wants to accelerate the pace of the department's work. One sign: Her office issued guidelines to the staff that reports and briefing papers headed for her inbox be as succinct as possible.

Rice and the rest of the administration's foreign policy team appear already to have become agile. With help from a Rice State Department, some administration officials say they hope Bush will move into his second term much as Ronald Reagan did.

In his first four years, Reagan faced criticism from Europe that he was a cowboy and warmonger. Many saw him differently in the second, when he held a series of summits with his Soviet counterpart, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, and signed deals limiting nuclear arsenals.

The first important tests for Rice and the rest of the administration foreign policy team will come this summer with elections in Lebanon, progress towards a new government in Iraq and a planned Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

- Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service