'Condi' Rice walks softly with a big Bush stick

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wanted her first stop in Israel to be the bathroom.

But, pursued by a horde of eager TV cameramen, she decided against taking time out to change her two-inch high heels and to risk the walk across a cobbled floor to lay a wreath at the Holocaust museum.

The superpower's stateswoman left the impression she was tiptoeing into Middle East peacemaking.

That wobbling walk was not part of the tour's choreography but it seemed to reinforce Ms Rice's message - she did not fly to the region to bigfoot the Israelis and Palestinians and impose terms for moving them toward peace.

And throughout her eight-day, 10-stop tour of the Middle East and Europe, Ms Rice's disarming, sometimes faltering style, helped underscore her diplomatic goals.

She wanted to show that President George W. Bush, viewed widely abroad as a bullying, go-it-alone leader in his first term, was now determined to focus on cooperation to repair traditional ties, particularly with allies in Europe.

"Condi," as her counterparts called her, largely succeeded in changing the transatlantic tone that had become shrill over the US-led Iraq war, constantly calling for a new chapter in relations based on shared values.

The accomplished pianist and former university provost won plaudits in the European media as an elegant sophisticate striking the right diplomatic notes, in sharp contrast to the caricature of Mr Bush as a Texas cowboy riding herd on allies.

But while she spoke in a tone different from the President's, it was clear. Unburdened by the doubts that clouded her predecessor Colin Powell, Ms Rice always spoke for Mr Bush.

Even if her voice sometimes quavered, she stood firm on Iran. She stared down European ministers who urged the United States to be more involved in their negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions. Despite days of lobbying, Ms Rice rebuked them, telling them to use the tough US line that Iran risked being referred to the UN Security Council. "I don't know that anyone has said that as clearly as they should to the Iranians," she said.

At a Paris university, Ms Rice gave a keynote speech loaded with language that echoed Mr Bush's oratory of recent weeks about spreading democracy and freedom.

But a flat delivery and nerves that spoiled rhetorical flourishes stopped her appearing to talk down to some of Europe's intellectual elite.

She misspoke, saying she had first come to France 10 years later than she actually did, used "freemen" instead of "freedom" and mangled a reference to Iraqis, whose fingers were dyed blue when they voted from "ink-stained" to "ink-feigned".

Still, the appeal to spread freedoms around the world resounded in Europe because it came from the first black woman to be US secretary of state who grew up in the segregated south.

In Berlin, Ms Rice, who says she has to pinch herself to make sure it is true she has her job, appeared like a deer caught in headlights at a news conference when banks of photographers snapped hundreds of flashes as she turned towards them.

Asked what was the main difference between her behind-the-scenes role as Mr Bush's national security adviser over the last four years and being secretary of state, she said being in the media's limelight.

She said later of her rock-star treatment in Berlin: "I don't think I've ever seen that many cameras".