Incoming US Secretary of State Dr Condoleezza Rice pledged yesterday to strengthen and repair US ties with allies that have been strained over the war in Iraq, emphasising twice at her confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill that "the time for diplomacy is now".
Dr Rice is expected to be confirmed as early as tomorrow, shortly after President George Bush is inaugurated for a second term. Her promise of closer co-operation with allies comes against a background of increasing violence in Iraq in the run-up to the January 30th elections, and new, graphic evidence presented to a British army court martial of the torture by coalition troops of Iraqi prisoners.
"If I am confirmed, public diplomacy will be a top priority for me and for the professionals I lead," said Dr Rice, in a clear message that she would follow a practical rather than an ideological course when she takes over the State Department from Mr Colin Powell.
"The time for diplomacy is long overdue," Senator Joseph Biden told Dr Rice during a sometimes testy hearing at which Mr Bush's national security adviser was castigated by Democrats for her role in promoting the US-led invasion of Iraq. "Relations with many of our oldest friends are quite frankly scraping the bottom right now," said Mr Biden, the senior Democrat on the Senate committee.
However, the Delaware senator also had blunt advice for European critics of the Bush administration.
"I have one simple message," he said. "Get over it. Get over it. President Bush is our President for the next four years. So get over it and start to act in your interest, Europe."
During questioning Dr Rice also pledged that she would put "an enormous amount of effort" into resolving the Middle East conflict, saying "we cannot afford to miss the opportunity" provided by the election of a new Palestinian leader and the Israeli plan to withdraw from Gaza.
"The stakes could not be higher," she said. "As long as the broader Middle East remains a region of tyranny and despair and anger, it will produce extremists and movements that threaten the safety of Americans and our friends."
Even before taking over from Mr Powell, Dr Rice has appointed as her deputy the US trade negotiator, Mr Robert Zoellick, a pragmatist who has good relations with his European counterparts.
Diplomats in Washington will be watching closely for other signals about evolving US foreign policy during Mr Bush's inauguration address tomorrow. The President has signalled that he regards the improvement of relations with Europe as a priority, by announcing that the first foreign trip of his second term will be to Brussels and other European capitals.
The new evidence of ill-treatment of Iraqi prisoners came in a trial of British soldiers in a court martial where one soldier pleaded guilty to beating an Iraqi captive, while he and two others denied other charges. Photographs showed a bound Iraqi being dangled from a forklift, another being subjected to simulated punches and kicks, and both prisoners being forced to simulate sex acts on each other.