Condoleezza Rice, the new US Secretary of State, is to start her tenure with a week-long visit to Europe and the Middle East.

The trip next week to Europe was widely expected but not the visit to the Middle East. It fulfills a promise she made to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during her nomination hearings that she would become personally involved in efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.

It will be a brief visit, fitted in between European stops, and will involve meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. There are no plans to go to Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia or Iraq.

The aim is to sound out the possibility of getting Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. This week Dr Rice met Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom at the White House and talked on the telephone to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader.

Dr Rice was ceremonially sworn in as Secretary of State today having served four years as President Bush's national security assistant. She took the oath for a second time following her official swearing in at a private ceremony on Wednesday.

President Bush said she would lead by "character and conviction and wisdom." In reply Dr Rice pledged to

use diplomacy to widen the community of democracy. She said: "You have given us our mission and we are ready to serve our great country and the cause of freedom for which it stands."

Before flying to Europe she is due to meet Dov Weisglass, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's chief of staff.

David Satterfield, a senior State Department Middle East expert, said the prospects for movement in the Arab-Israeli conflict were better than at any time over the past four years.

Addressing a conference sponsored by the American Institute of Peace, Mr Satterfield said Israel's proposed withdrawal from Gaza offered a "tremendous opportunity" for progress toward a peaceful settlement. He added there had been progress in discussions with Israel on the position of the separation barrier that Israel is constructing in the West Bank.

Dr Rice's Middle East visit has been prompted by a series of promising developments after the death of Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat in November. These include the election of Mr Abbas as his successor, a decline in terror attacks on Israel and growing cooperation with Mr Sharon.

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