Europe to be in loop on US foreign policy-Kennedy

ROME, Nov 9 (Reuters) Europe will be kept more in the loop about US foreign policy after mid-term elections which swept away Republican control of Congress, senior Democratic party member Senator Edward Kennedy said today.

Kennedy, the Democratic senator for Massachusetts and the younger brother of former President John F Kennedy, said his party's newly won control of the US House of Representatives would bring a desire for greater involvement.

''There is a new game in the United States now,'' he told reporters after meeting Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

''There is a new desire to have more involvement, where the Democrats will be participating in foreign policy...to a much greater extent. I think we have ideas that are constructive and positive,'' he said in Rome.

Kennedy was asked if the Democrats' mid-term election victory would lead to better dialogue between the United States and European countries, some of whom felt excluded from decisions regarding the war in Iraq.

''I think we are dealing with the situation. I was personally opposed to the war but that was yesterday,'' he said. ''I think that what we are trying to do now is (decide) how we proceed now. That's really the challenge.'' Asked if Europe would be kept more in the foreign policy loop than in the past, he said: ''Absolutely''.

Kennedy is in Italy to attend 40th anniversary commemorations of the 1966 floods that devastated parts of the city of Florence and led to an international effort to save precious works of art and manuscripts.

REUTERS AB BST0002