Powell Trip to Include Effort at Placating European Allies

In a hastily arranged effort to mend diplomatic fences, the Bush administration is dispatching Secretary of State Colin L. Powell for talks with European allies frustrated by the U.S. failure to deploy their forces in Afghanistan--offers made in response to American urging.

Stops in Berlin, Paris and London were added at the last minute to Powell’s already crammed eight-day trip so that he can consult with allies and explain U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, State Department officials said.

The first stop of the trip will be Bucharest, Romania, where a previously scheduled meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres was given a new urgency by the sharp escalation of violence in the Middle East.

Powell departed Monday for the whirlwind 10-nation tour, which will also take him to Russia, Turkey, NATO headquarters in Belgium, a European conference in Romania and three Central Asian countries near Afghanistan: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker said Monday that there were no plans to change the itinerary or include a stop in the Middle East.

The common denominator of the trip, the second foreign tour Powell has made since the attacks Sept. 11, will be consultations about the war on terrorism and the immediate and long-term challenges of rebuilding a post-Taliban Afghanistan, the State Department said.

But the European and Central Asian tour has taken on even greater importance with the need to patch up the most serious rift among the allies since the U.S.-led coalition was formed.

“This coalition needs tending, and it needs support. Political leaders need to see some payoff for the risks they’re taking,” said a State Department official who asked to remain anonymous. “They’ve all had political fallout because of their support for the United States, and they can’t continue to spend political capital without periodic payback.”

At the crux of the dispute is the Bush administration’s reluctance to deploy allied troops in Afghanistan to help safeguard the delivery of humanitarian aid. Allies, particularly Britain, have been alarmed by what they deem an unnecessary delay in providing aid before the frigid winter sets in and cuts off tens of thousands of families in northern Afghanistan, European diplomats said.

In recent days, they have openly complained about the decision by Gen. Tommy Franks, Central Command chief, to defer the deployment of an allied stabilization force because the United States is still engaged in a war to root out Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network and the Taliban leadership and fighters.

After deploying about 100 special forces at the Bagram airstrip near Kabul, the Afghan capital, Britain was told to stop its deployment, British officials said. Up to 6,000 soldiers had been placed on high alert in preparation for dispatch to Afghanistan. They have since been told to stand down. And France has a team of advance troops in Uzbekistan waiting for deployment to northern Afghanistan.

“Britain leaned way out there and then feel they got burned,” the State Department official said.

Powell will also use the stops in Belgium and Romania to thank allies for their participation in the U.S.-led coalition.

“It’s been clear from the beginning that the war on terrorism couldn’t be a unilateral activity,” the official said. “This is tangible evidence that this is not the way these guys are operating.”

In Bucharest, Powell will deliver a statement on terrorism to a meeting of the 54-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. And in Brussels, the secretary will meet with the 19 foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which in an unprecedented move invoked an article in its charter interpreting the terrorist assaults on New York and the Pentagon as an attack on all NATO members.

On several stops, Powell is also expected to hold intensive talks about an international force to be deployed in Afghanistan to aid a new provisional government that has been the focus of negotiations among four Afghan factions in Germany for the past week.

The United States has been very pleased with the number of countries that have volunteered to send troops, Powell said Sunday on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation.”

The tentative goal is to have as many Muslim countries participate as possible, U.S. officials said. Turkey, the second stop on Powell’s trip, is the top contender to lead the force. Powell and other U.S. officials have said that the United States will not have troops in the multinational force, often referred to as a “coalition of the willing.”

In Central Asia, Powell will consult with the nervous Uzbek government about the danger of instability in post-Taliban Afghanistan spilling across the border.

“They feel they’ve stuck their neck out and they want this relationship to be a strong one so after the war they’re not ignored,” the State Department official said. “They also want to ensure that some of the troublesome people who joined forces with Al Qaeda don’t come back to make their lives unhappy.”

Powell will arrive in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, which controls a bridge to Afghanistan that is expected to be used to transport American wheat and other humanitarian supplies.

In Kazakhstan, Powell is scheduled to give a speech focusing on strengthening U.S. economic ties to the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, which are still heavily dependent on Russia. He will emphasize that the U.S. relationship with these countries is broader than the war, State Department officials said.

In Moscow, the secretary will hold a range of talks to follow up on President Vladimir V. Putin’s summit with President Bush last month in the United States. They will discuss Afghanistan, the controversial U.S. plan for missile defense and a new “strategic framework” for cutting back their nuclear arsenals.