Warrior Princess toes the Bush party line

By RUPERT CORNWELL

Condoleezza Rice has always been an over-achiever. At 3 she was a child prodigy pianist (her name derives from the Italian musical term meaning "with sweetness") and even now plays almost at concert level.

She graduated from university at the age of 19.

At 26, she was a professor, at 34 a top White House adviser, and at 36 she became provost, effectively president, of Stanford University in California.

Now, at 50, she becomes the first black woman Secretary of State, with the job of bringing to heel a department that under Colin Powell was frequently the odd man out in the foreign policy-making process.

Her nicknames - "the Warrior Princess" or, less flatteringly, "the nanny" - give a taste of her style.

Ms Rice is not a founding member of the neo-conservatives, but she has been an unswerving advocate of an assertive US foreign policy in general and the war in Iraq in particular.

Nor is she one to brook argument. "It's just nonsense to say that because we've confronted it, we've created more of it," she recently replied to those who contend that the Iraq invasion has increased the terrorist threat.

"Does anybody think these people were just sitting around drinking tea?"

Most importantly, however, as she takes the helm of US diplomacy, is her exceptional closeness to the President.

Ms Rice was George W. Bush's chief foreign policy adviser in his 2000 campaign, and formalised that position as the White House national security adviser for the past four years.

She is completely trusted by Mr Bush, and considered virtual "family" by a political clan for whom loyalty is the supreme virtue.

Often, the unmarried Ms Rice spends weekends as a guest of the Bushes at the presidential retreat of Camp David.

But in this closeness, many analysts say, lies the danger. Mr Bush is famously averse to hearing points of view different to his own; the last thing he needs is another top adviser telling him what he wants to hear.

In the run-up to the war, these critics note, moreover, that Ms Rice never challenged the dubious intelligence that formed the case for war.

By sending Ms Rice to the State Department, and promoting her own deputy, Stephen Hadley, to the post of national security adviser, Mr Bush has strengthened his grip on the foreign policy process.

Many foreign service veterans fear a purge of the department's top ranks.

Abroad, too, there may be wariness, with the departure of Mr Powell, correctly regarded as the Bush Administration official most sympathetic to a foreign viewpoint.

But world leaders can be sure of one thing as they never were with her predecessor: that when she speaks, she speaks unequivocally for the President.

- INDEPENDENT