Clinton to visit Spain on Europe tour

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will travel to Spain to discuss Afghanistan, the Middle East and economic issues following stops in eastern Europe, her spokeswoman said Tuesday.

During her visit to Madrid on Friday and Saturday, the chief US diplomat will meet Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

They will "discuss a range of issues including Afghanistan, North Africa, and the Middle East, and trade, investment and the economy," she added in a statement.

Leaving Washington on Wednesday, Clinton will be in Budapest for Thursday's opening of the Lantos Institute, named after the late US congressman Tom Lantos, a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor and outspoken global human rights advocate who died in 2008.

The top US diplomat will also meet with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi, US officials said.

Later Thursday, Clinton will travel to Vilnius for the Community of Democracies ministerial meeting that will bring together senior government officials, parliamentarians, non-government organizations, women and youth leaders, as well as the private sector.

She will also meet President Dalia Grybauskaite, Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius and other Lithuanian officials, according to US officials.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011