'India rising, but US prefers European nations'

Washington: India, China and Brazil are rising world powers but US relies on European nations for resolving key global issues like Iran and Libya, a top Obama Administration official said.

"Obviously, the United States is a major power, China is an increasing power, (so is) India..., but when we in Washington look around the world and ask ourselves, who is our potential partner on issue X or Y, first on the list tends to be Europe," Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip H Gordon said during a media roundtable in Sofia, Bulgaria.

India, China and Brazil are rising powers, but "they are not the ones that we are turning to help us deal with this (Libya) major global challenge, so that needs to be put in perspective," he was quoted as saying in a transcript released by the State Department yesterday.

"Take the cases I mentioned -- Iran -- the Europeans are our partners in trying to deal with the diplomacy of the Iranian nuclear issue; certainly in North Africa, Middle East in the last few weeks.

"Now, of course we are in touch with India and China on the Libya issue, but we are really working this together with the Europeans," he said.

Gordon accepted that India and China are emerging powers and Europe is now divided, but still when US needs to deal with global challenges "it's the democratic, prosperous, militarily capable members of the European Union we are working with first and foremost,and those are the countries with whom we share values and interests."