Brussels, 04/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - The United States' priorities for 2006 as far as transatlantic relations go will be to broaden the mandate of NATO towards Africa, Asia and the Middle East and to foster democracy in Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia as well as to cooperate with Europe in all the regions of the world through political, economic and security partnerships. This idea was set out by US Under-Secretary of State at the State Department, Nicholas Burns, at the end of December in Washington. Fortunately, in 2005, Europe and the United States were able to bring the “war of words” over the war in Iraq to an end and resume work to achieve positive and important results together, as, for example, in Lebanon and in Belarus, Mr Burns said. In 2006, he added, Europe will remain the main partner of the United States when it comes to raising the current key challenges - the terrorist threat, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, international crime, AIDS/HIV and climate change. “Our interests are nearly identical on all these issues”, Mr Burns went on to point out. “The next great mission” of the United States and the European Union will be that of “spreading the freedom we enjoy in Europe and America” to the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Iraq and Iran, but also to Russia and Ukraine, Mr Burns said. In the Balkans, American leadership will be “indispensable and we have revitalised our efforts”, he stressed. On the subject of Iraq, Mr Burns urged Europeans to play a “constructive role”. In Asia, Washington and Brussels must reach a consensus on how to engage a rising India and China, he concluded.