- guardian.co.uk, Friday January 19 2001 02.00 GMT
Mr Bush would not normally be expected to travel to Europe until summit meetings already scheduled for this summer. But European anxieties about the new administration's national missile defence plans have forced a rethink and Mr Bush is now examining a possible pre-emptive diplomatic initiative this spring.
No detailed itinerary for such a visit has yet been discussed, but Britain, Germany and France are all under consideration as stops on what would be a high-profile visit for a new president with little direct experience of Europe.
"An early trip is definitely a possibility," a senior US official said yesterday. "We may not want to wait until the summer summits."
Mr Bush is due to attend an EU-US summit in Gothenburg in June, and to take part in the G7-G8 economic summit in Genoa in July. European leaders are also jockeying for the chance of early visits to Washington to get to know him.
The election of Mr Bush has stirred more than the usual degree of nervous European expectation that accompanies any change of administration in Washington. Several governments fear he may be tempted to rush into the introduction of the controversial missile defence project without taking into account local anxieties about the project.
Although protocol means that members of the new administration should not announce any international plans while Mr Clinton remains in office, it has already become clear that the Bush team will be quick off the mark in taking its message to Europe on defence and trade issues.
The new defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, is expected to be the first senior member of the Bush team to cross the Atlantic. Mr Rumsfeld, a key architect of the missile defence plan, is due to travel to Germany in February to attend a military conference.
The new secretary of state, Colin Powell, is also expected to visit Europe "within weeks rather than months", according to sources.
But the key issue in the US planning is the possible trip to Europe by Mr Bush. His advisers believe such a visit would help to allay anxieties about the new administration's intentions, as well as capturing the public relations initiative from European critics of the missile defence project.
Plans for Tony Blair to visit Washington to meet the new president before the expected general election are already well advanced. Mr Blair is anxious to be among the first world leaders to meet the new US leader and thus to signal that he can transfer his special relationship with Mr Clinton to his successor.
Julian Borger adds: The battle over the nomination of John Ashcroft, a leading member of the radical right, as the new attorney general reached a climax yesterday when a black Missouri judge, Ronnie White, told a Senate committee that Mr Ashcroft distorted his record to prevent his promotion.
Mr Ashcroft, a former Missouri senator, is expected to be confirmed in his post, but not before a bitter ideological exchange. The Democrats depict him as an extremist unfit to run the justice department, but Mr Ashcroft insists he will uphold all laws impartially.
