Condoleezza Rice leaves on Thursday for Europe on her first trip as US Secretary of State, hoping to heal old rifts with US allies over Iraq but facing new frictions over China and Iran. Rice was flying to London to kick off a week-long tour of eight European nations and the Middle East and start tackling a full plate of foreign policy issues hanging over US President George W Bush's second term. The trip was billed as a warm-up to Bush's own fence-mending tour later this month but will also be the first test of Rice's ability to sell the tough policies she helped craft over four years as his national security adviser. A week after taking over the helm of US diplomacy, Rice will use the success of Iraq's national elections Sunday to try to narrow differences with US allies such as France and Germany that fiercely opposed the war.