Powell gives no hint that he will leave post

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, whom many analysts had expected to leave his post in a second Bush administration, has shown little sign of an impending departure and has instead outlined an ambitious agenda over the next two months that includes high-level meetings in Egypt, with NATO, and with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

"There is a lot going on . . . and I am very pleased to be secretary of state," Powell told reporters Monday evening as he flew to Mexico, in a rare acknowledgement of the ubiquitous predictions that he would resign shortly after Bush's reelection.

Over the past year, a flurry of newspaper articles chronicled Powell's alleged frustrations with how quickly the Bush administration went to war in Iraq, his purportedly poor relationship with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and his open disappointment over the inaccurate information about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction that he was given for his speech to the United Nations.

A month ago, as the presidential election approached, officials at the State Department -- where Powell is almost universally beloved -- said they were bracing themselves for a major change. But now associates of Powell say they expect him to stay at least until January, when elections are slated to occur in Iraq, and possibly through next summer. In his talks yesterday and Monday with reporters, Powell suggested that little would change, at least right away, on the foreign policy front in Bush's second term.

"I think the American people have, through this election, demonstrated to the president that they expect him to keep acting in the manner that he has been acting," Powell told the Financial Times.

Yesterday, as he and five other Cabinet officials met with their counterparts in Mexico City, Powell said Bush hoped an immigration overhaul would be a major accomplishment of his second term.

In January, Bush announced a plan to give "guest worker" status to millions of immigrants who live illegally in the United States, but did not get the chance to engage Congress on the issue because of the election, Powell said.

"The president is committed to comprehensive immigration reform as a high priority in his second term, and he will work closely with our Congress to achieve this goal," Powell said in the inaugural session of the US-Mexico Binational Commission.

State Department officials say that in Bush's second term they will reevaluate -- or fine-tune -- their policies in the Western Hemisphere, although they also contend that the basic framework of that policy -- free trade, democratization, and antidrug campaigns -- won't change.

Europe was also high on Powell's agenda, as he plans to attend meetings in the coming weeks with the European Union, NATO, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Powell said he plans "to make sure our European friends have no illusions that the president wants to have a strong relationship with all of our European friends and allies and notwithstanding any disagreements we have had in the past," Powell said.

But perhaps the largest task on Powell's plate this month is Iran's nuclear program and an attempt by France, Germany, and Britain to strike a deal with Tehran to give up voluntarily its program to enrich uranium, which can be used to make a nuclear weapon.

US officials have long wanted to bring Iran before the Security Council to face possible economic sanctions for its nuclear program, but are waiting to see whether the Europeans make headway in the negotiations.

Powell indicated Monday that he would talk face-to-face with Iranian officials -- a rare, but not unheard of interaction between the estranged countries -- at an upcoming meeting in Egypt on Iraq to be attended by all of its neighbors and European and Asian countries that have donated money to Iraq.

"We'll have the first opportunity to talk to the Iranians at the meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, and we'll see what develops," Powell said.

"I think the nuclear issue is an important one to resolve in one way or another, but there are other aspects of Iranian behavior that are troubling -- support for terrorist activity -- and we'll just have to see whether or not there are openings here."

US officials say Iran's deadline for agreeing to stop its nuclear activities is Nov. 25, the next scheduled meeting of the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Farah Stockman can be reached at fstockman@globe.com.