By James Harding
Financial Times

Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, is planning a trip to Germany next month, as both sides of a shattered transatlantic relationship seek to repair some of the damage caused by the Iraq war.

US diplomats are still said to be working on plans for a possible visit. The details have not been finalised, but US State Department officials are considering a trip that could take Mr Powell to Germany, Russia, Georgia and Bulgaria.

The Bush administration has convened inter-agency meetings to consider the repercussions of French, German and Russian conduct on the path to war with Iraq. According to one senior administration official, there is a sense in the White House that relations with France and Germany "will never be the same again". But, he continued: "This does not mean they need to be bad."

Mr Powell's proposed stop in Berlin would be a milestone on the road to restoring a civil working relationship. George W. Bush's personal relationship with Gerhard Schrцder, the German chancellor, was scarred last September when a member of Mr Schrцder's cabinet was said to have compared the US president to Adolf Hitler.

Mr Schrцder's apparent willingness to exploit anti-American feeling to advance his prospects in the national elections and Germany's vocal opposition to US policy on Iraq meant German officials were frozen out of discussions with Washington.

Close aides to Mr Bush have hinted that relations between Berlin and Washington are thawing.

Mr Powell's planned visit follows a stop in Brussels earlier this month after his trip to Turkey, and marks an energetic re-engagement with Europe. He will be in France at the beginning of June, when President Jacques Chirac hosts the G8 summit in Evian.

But it also promises to come at a time of renewed sensitivities in the transatlantic relationship, as the UN Security Council considers the future of the oil-for-food programme in Iraq and the international community's role in rebuilding the country.