Clinton Hopes To Boost Europe Ties In Maiden Trip

Before the Europe , she will visit Egypt for a donors` conference to rebuild Gaza and also go to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Hillary Clinton hopes her first trip to Europe as top U.S. diplomat will reconnect the United States with the continent after tensions with the Bush administration, a senior official said on Friday.

Clinton leaves this weekend for a week-long trip to the Middle East and Europe, stopping in Brussels to see NATO foreign ministers on March 4-5, meeting Russia's foreign minister in Geneva and finishing with a stopover in Turkey.

Before the European leg, she will visit Egypt for a donors' conference to rebuild Gaza and also go to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

"The overarching theme is the ... reconnection of the United States with Europe and really a sense of consolidating some of this enormous political goodwill on both sides of the Atlantic and harnessing it to a common agenda," Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Dan Fried said of the European leg of her trip.

The Bush administration had a fractious relationship with some European allies following its 2003 invasion of Iraq, and sought in its final years to rebuild those ties.

President Barack Obama got a rapturous welcome in Europe during a trip he made in the midst of his presidential campaign last year and European leaders have warmly welcomed his election as president.

Clinton, who was a rival of Obama's until she dropped out of the Democratic Party's race for president, wants to capitalize in on the positive tone that emerged after the election.

"The secretary wants to channel this tremendous positive political energy into action on a common agenda," said Fried.

That common agenda includes Afghanistan as well as help in closing down the Guantanamo Bay prison by European nations taking in some of the security detainees.

The United States is pressing NATO allies to offer up more troops for U.S. and coalition efforts in Afghanistan, and Clinton is expected to push Washington's case for that to happen ahead of a NATO summit in April.

NATO's relationship with Russia, which was very strained after the brief invasion of Georgia last summer, would also be on the agenda in Brussels, said Fried.