Rice to meet new French foreign minister at G8 talks

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet her new French counterpart Bernard Kouchner for the first time on the sidelines of G8 talks in Germany next week, officials said Monday.

"They will schedule a little time to get together then," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, referring to the G8 foreign ministers' meeting in the eastern city of Potsdam on May 30.

Rice and Kouchner also spoke by telephone for the first time on Sunday, he added.

A surprise recruit to President Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing government, Kouchner is a left-winger who co-founded Doctors Without Borders, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, and was UN High Representative in Kosovo 1999-2001.

The May 30 talks will prepare next month's...