WASHINGTON, NOV 11: US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's long-awaited trip to India scheduled to begin Monday has been all but upstaged by Washington's face-off with Iraq. The US at this moment is caught up in rallying its allies in the Gulf and elsewhere against Saddam Hussein.

Although officials say there is no change in the Secretary's travel plans, the rapidly escalating crisis involving Iraq is proving to be a major distraction. Albright has been on the phone with her counterparts in Europe and the Gulf to canvas support for stronger action against Iraq and has been meeting often with her brains trust, leaving hardly any time to attend to the preparations for the India visit.

Defence Secretary William Cohen and the Joint Chief of Staff Gen Shelton put off their long-scheduled visit to the Far East today to deal with the Iraq crisis.

However, State Department sources said Albright's South Asia visit will most certainly go ahead. The Secretary has a much better support system and excellent communication facilities. She will be on top of the situation even on the road, one official said.

Albright will be traveling in a special aircraft reserved for her with an entourage of about 25 officials and 15 journalists. Although the State Department has not released a manifest, it is believed to include Assistant Secretary Karl Inderfurth, Policy Planning Director Greg Craig, South Asia Advisor in the National Security Council Bruce Riedel, State Department spokesman James Rubin and Albright's chief of staff Elaine Shocas.

Greg Craig, who visited India last month with Under Secretary Thomas Pickering, has since been appointed coordinator for Tibet. But sources said he had been pencilled in for the India visit even before the additional job.

An official of Assistant Secretary rank, Craig, like Inderfurth, is an Albright confidant. The Policy Planning Division conceptualises long term US ties and interests around the world.

Part of the official delegation includes officials from the Near East Bureau because Albright will first stop in Doha, Qatar, for a Middle East economic summit on November 15. She will then fly into Islamabad on November 16 and New Delhi on November 17.

The State Department's South Asia Bureau is working overtime to prepare grounds for the visit which analysts say will not result in any immediate major agreements, but will institutionalise ties between the two countries.``For 50 years, the US has seen India exclusively through a Cold War prism. This visit will signal a brand new approach and unlock India from a South Asia geography in which it has been confined,'' says Richard Haass, Direction of Asian Studies at the Brookings Institute.

Haass, who headed the South Asia bureau in the National Security Council during the Bush era said a compartmentalisation of ties was underway between US and India that would result in contentious issues like nuclear proliferation being treated separately.

Meanwhile, the incoming US Ambassador to India Richard Celeste was sworn in at the State Department on Monday and will be leaving for New Delhi Tuesday night. The brief ceremony at the State Department was more like a meeting of the old boys club as Celeste waxed nostalgic about his stint in India in the 1960s as a young executive assistant to then Ambassador Chester Bowles.

Bowles daughter Sally Bowles, was present at the swearing in, as was Celestes own family. Two of his children are born in India. Celeste also remarked about how well Bowles staff of 1960s had done for themselves. At least three of them, Brandon Grove, Nick Veliotes and Oward Schaffer, who went on to hold important diplomatic posts, were present at the swearing-in as was Senator John Glenn.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.