US reaches out to 'old Europe'

By Caroline Wyatt BBC News, Paris

Condoleezza Rice chose the heart of what a member of the Bush administration once disparagingly called "old Europe" - the very capital that led the opposition to the war on Iraq - to extend the hand of friendship.

In her first major speech on foreign policy, she came to Paris with an offer of reconciliation and spoke at the university which is shaping the next generation of French politicians.

Rice made her speech in Paris because it was a "centre of debate"

There, the new US secretary of state called for a fresh start for both sides.

"It is time to turn away from the disagreements of the past," she said to a hand-picked audience of French politicians and students.

"It is time to open a new chapter in our relationship and a new chapter in our alliance.

"America stands ready to work with Europe on our common agenda - and Europe must stand ready to work with America."

There was also flattery for France, which she described as one of the birthplaces of freedom - and US approval for what Ms Rice called the growing unity of Europe.

She said the US needed a strong Europe - comments that will go down well in France, which has long seen a powerful Europe as the only possible counterbalance to the might of the US.

However, the secretary of state made it clear she saw Europe as a partner, rather than as a counterweight to US power.

'Mood for reconciliation'

So will Ms Rice's message of peace to "old Europe" really persuade Paris and Washington to kiss and make up, after the harsh words and chill of the past two years?

Political analyst Dominique Moisi, of the French foreign affairs institute Ifri, believes the will is there.

"I think the French have chosen to seize the positive interpretation," he says.

A lot of damage has been done to public opinion both here and in the US - down deep inside the American psyche and in the French psyche Pierre Lellouche French politician

"We are in the mood for reconciliation. What is striking right now is that both in America and in France, there's a sense that things have gone too far. And so there is a political will to make up for it."

And what did French politicians make of Ms Rice's conciliatory words?

Pierre Lellouche, a leading MP from the governing UMP, believes it is high time to forgive and forget the recent rows.

"A lot of damage has been done to public opinion both here and in the US - down deep inside the American psyche and in the French psyche.

"There has been a lot of anti-Americanism unleashed here. The Americans were angry with the way we campaigned against them and we were angry with the way they wouldn't listen to anybody.

"But now we can make a fresh start."

Nation of pragmatists

There are nonetheless sceptics in France, who say Ms Rice has offered fine words that will have to be put to the test. They ask if the US will prove readier to listen to Europe's views on Syria and Iran than it was on Iraq.

But in public at least, those sceptics are in a minority. The French government is seizing this chance to make up with Washington in the run-up to the meeting between French President Jacques Chirac and US President George W Bush in Brussels on 21 February.

And at heart, France is a nation of pragmatists - well-enough versed in realpolitik to know that co-operation with the US is the only way forward for both sides.

Paris may not like the dominance of Washington in world affairs, but knows it has to make the best of it - until it can build up Europe as a counterweight to the might of the US.