WASHINGTON - SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton is to embark on Sunday on her first trip to the Middle East and Europe as the United States' top diplomat, the State Department announced on Thursday.

Mrs Clinton, who visited Asia last week on her first foreign tour since starting work last month, will travel March 1-7 to Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Belgium, Switzerland and Turkey, spokesman Robert Wood said.

She will first attend a donors conference in Egypt aimed at rebuilding the Gaza Strip after a recent Israeli offensive as well as meet Nato foreign ministers in Brussels and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva.

Joining her at the March 2 international conference in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh will be George Mitchell, the special US envoy to the Arab-Israeli peace talks. She will also hold separate talks with Egyptian officials, he added.

Mrs Clinton then travels to Israel and the Palestinian territories to meet with senior officials on both sides amid efforts to revive peace talks that have stalled since Israel's war against Hamas between December 27 and January 18.

She will later join her North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and European Union counterparts as well as Switzerland March 5 in Brussels 'where she will consult with allies and seek consensus on the approach to the upcoming Nato summit,' Mr Wood told reporters.

Nato holds its summit in Strasbourg, France April 3-5, and high on the list of issues will be Nato's recently chilly relations with Moscow. Russia's war in August with neighboring Georgia, a US ally and former Soviet republic, brought Russia-Nato tensions to a head, but diplomats said on Thursday that Moscow is ready to discuss the war to help unblock ties with Nato.

Mr Wood said Mrs Clinton then travels to Geneva to hold talks with Mr Lavrov which are sure to touch on Nato-Russia relations. The two will also discuss 'possibilities for a follow-on agreement to START and deepening our cooperation in areas such as Afghanistan,' Mr Wood said.

He was referring to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty signed by Moscow and Washington in 1991 and set to expire in December. Mrs Clinton is also set to meet key Turkish officials in Ankara. -- AFP