WASHINGTON, Feb 1: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will make a major speech on transatlantic relations next week in Paris, the heart of European opposition to the invasion of Iraq, officials said on Monday.

The officials said the address, at a venue to be determined, would be a highlight of Condoleezza Rice's week-long tour of Europe and the Middle East _ her first trip abroad as chief US diplomat.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the Feb 8 speech would focus on "her view of US-European relations, current policy and other things as we go forward". "She wanted to do it in Paris because she felt Paris was one of the places where there's a lot of debate and discussion about the US, about Europe, about common goals, about how we achieve our agenda," Mr Boucher said.

"That's a discussion that does go on in Europe - does go on in France. And she wanted to be part of that discussion and put her ideas into the mix." Ms Rice, who took over as secretary of state last week, is due to leave on Thursday on a trip that will take her to Britain, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Israel, the West Bank, Italy, France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

The main goal of her travels will be to lay the groundwork for President George Bush's Feb 21-25 trip to Europe aimed at mending fences with US allies after their falling out over Iraq.

A US official said Ms Rice might speak publicly in other countries but the Paris address "is the one set-piece speech they are going to be doing on the trip". Ms Rice will face a delicate task during less than a day in France, where officials said she also was to meet President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister Michel Barnier.

As Mr Bush's former national security adviser and one of his most trusted aides, Ms Rice is closely identified with the tough pre-emptive US policies that have drawn such criticism from the French.

Ms Rice has also been cited as a protagonist in the Franco-American feud over the invasion of Iraq, singling out Paris among all anti-war countries. "Punish France, ignore Germany and forgive Russia," she was famously quoted as saying in 2003, an injunction neither confirmed nor denied by the Bush administration.

France has taken a wait-and-see attitude toward Ms Rice since she was named secretary of state in November. Mr Barnier said relations with her as national security adviser were "proper" and would remain so.

Mr Boucher said Ms Rice's trip was aimed at crafting a common agenda with US allies on issues ranging from terrorism to the Middle East peace process and the development of European institutions. Among the agenda items were efforts by France, Britain and Germany to persuade Iran to renounce its alleged nuclear weapons ambitions. -AFP