"There's a lot on the table for the U.S. and France, in terms of being able to address issues of mutual concern around the globe, whether that's Iran or the Middle East or dealing with poverty alleviation in Africa or climate change. And there's a whole host of issues around the globe that concern both our countries and, of course, there's a very strong bilateral relationship there that the Secretary looks forward to continuing with her new counterpart."

-- U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, on the appointment of Bernard Kouchner as the new foreign minister of France, and the pressing topics that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is looking forward to working on with him. A doctor by training, Kouchner co-founded the Nobel prize-winning Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in 1971 to put his beliefs into action, after working as a young doctor for the Red Cross in Biafra in 1968 during Nigeria's civil war. As a Socialist, his appointment by France's new Conservative President Nicholas Sarkozy, came as a surprise to many political observers. His last cabinet post was as a socialist health minister, in the government of the late President Francois Mitterrand, appointed in 1992. Before that he was Minister of State for Humanitarian Action (1988-1991) and Minister of State for Social Integration (1988). More recently, Kouchner, 67, has served as UN special representative to Kosovo from 1999-2001. In 2003, he was one of the very few French politicians to come out in favor of the US-led military intervention in Iraq.