Washington, June 4: US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld departs today on a trip to Europe and Asia where he will consult US allies in a bid to ease tensions between India and Pakistan, the Pentagon said yesterday. A senior US defense official said the secretary will visit India and Pakistan but the dates for that portion of the trip as well as for stops in Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait were not yet firm.
His first destination will be London where he meets the british defence minister Geoff Hoon before traveling to Brussels for a two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers on June 6-7.
Rumsfeld will meet in Brussels with Russian defense minister Sergei Ivanov who will be attending the first meeting of the recently created NATO-Russian council. After Brussels, the secretary will make a stop in Germany to visit a base for NATO Awacs aircraft and then fly to Talinn for a meeting of Baltic defense ministers.

He was expected to head to Asia after the meeting in Estonia.
The defense official said that the trip was still open-ended with Rumsfeld possibly not returning to Washington before the end of next week. Bureau Report