Condoleezza Rice flew into stormy weather today as she arrived in London for the last leg of her visit to the Middle East and Europe.

The US Secretary of State first had to endure a rough landing as her aircraft touched down in winds gusting to 80mph (130kph), before heading to Whitehall for meetings with Tony Blair and Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, that are expected to be made awkward by an outspoken attack on the Bush Administration by their Cabinet colleague, Peter Hain.

In an interview with the New Statesman magazine published this morning, Mr Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary and a contender for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party, described George W Bush's presidency as "the most right-wing American administration... in living memory".

Harking back to new Labour's promises of an "ethical foreign policy" in the early days of Mr Blair's premiership, Mr Hain took aim at what he called the "neocon mission" of the Bush Administration, in which Ms Rice, first as National Security Adviser and, since 2004, as Secretary State, has been a pivotal figure.

"The neocon mission has failed," he said. "It's not only failed to provide a coherent international policy, it's failed wherever it's been tried, and it's failed with the American electorate, who kicked it into touch last November."

Mr Hain, a former minister in the Foreign Office who is expected to keep a Cabinet position if Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister, openly stated his preference for Labour's "sister party" in the US, the Democrats, and described the difficulties of working with Mr Bush's White House.

"The problem for us as a government... was actually to maintain a working relationship with what was the most right-wing American administration, if not ever, then in living memory," he said.

Mr Hain's remarks, confirmed by his office today, are likely to make for an unwelcome distraction at Ms Rice's meetings with Mrs Beckett and the Prime Minister, which are expected to focus on the upcoming three-way meeting of the US, Israel and the Palestinians, brokered by Ms Rice earlier this week.

Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, have agreed to hold informal talks about the establishment of a Palestinian state in the coming weeks, creating a mood of optimism among diplomats that the negotiations might move beyond the peace "roadmap" that has been largely stalled since 2003.

Earlier today, the German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, confirmed that representatives from the so-called "Quartet" of the EU, the UN, America and Russia would meet in Washington on February 2 to prepare for the summit while Ms Rice said the entire Middle East was looking for peace.

"I did find the parties very desirous of making progress," she added. "I believe the whole region is looking for ways to make progress and drive toward the establishment of a Palestinian state."

Although Ms Rice denied that the "roadmap" had been superceded by recent developments, there has been a shift in the language used to describe the deal that Middle Eastern leaders appear to be groping for.

US diplomats now speak of the "political horizon" while Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, today echoed the Egyptian term "endgame" to express the desire to move beyond the cautious steps envisaged by the roadmap and straight to a lasting peace. "What we would like to do with our friends is to know what is the endgame -- once we have the endgame, to know really how we can get there," he said.

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