Tall Stack Of Problems Await Powell’s Successor

WASHINGTON (AP) – Secretary of State Colin Powell’s successor, Condoleeza Rice, will find a tall list of problems stacked in the in-box. President George W. Bush is using diplomacy to try to halt North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs and is ready to offer assurances he would not use force. Negotiations are being conducted jointly with South Korea, Japan, Russia and China. In the Middle East, the death of Yasser Arafat is seen as a possible avenue for advancing peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Bush has affirmed strong support for Israel and its security but avoided taking stands or providing details on how he intended to advance it or promote agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Bush approved of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to relinquish all of Gaza and to evacuate a handful of Jewish settlements on the West Bank. Bush has worked for good relations with China. Last December, with visiting Prime Minister Wen Jiabao at his side at the White House, he sent a strong warning to Taiwan not to take any action toward independence that would result in dangerous new tensions with Beijing. In Europe, Bush expanded the NATO alliance and has sought to patch up differences with Germany and France over the war with Iraq. He plans to withdraw 70,000 troops from Europe and South Korea while reconfiguring the U.S. military in Germany with trimmer and faster-moving units. The single greatest danger facing humanity, Bush says, is the threat of nuclear weapons falling into terrorist hands. In the next four years, the president is looking to work with other nations to prevent countries from developing nuclear weapons, to secure and dismantle weapons that already exist and stop black-market trafficking of nuclear materials.