Washington: The last time Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband went on the road together they were on a secret trip to a former Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan.

Today, the tag-team diplomats were headed to the heart of California's Silicon Valley.

Rice is taking Miliband to her Palo Alto, where she taught and plans to teach again next year at Stanford University, to explore clean new fuel technologies and visit the headquarters of Internet mammoth Google today.

It is a far cry from Kandahar where they met NATO troops in February or other pressing matters like dealing with Iran's nuclear programme, but Rice says the informal jaunt will be looking at innovative solutions to equally daunting challenges facing the environment.

"We'll be involved in a number of events to look at clean energy and technology and the role that technology can play in helping us to deal with our energy challenges and also with environmental stewardship," she told reporters yesterday.

Rice spokesman Sean McCormack says the visit is also aimed at sharing "a little bit of her life" with a close colleague. "She has deep roots down there and she will show him around a little bit," he said.

Miliband is the second British foreign minister Rice has invited to see a less formal side to the United States. She famously took one of Miliband 's predecessors, Jack Straw, and his wife to her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama three years ago, where they took in a football game.

Straw reciprocated by bringing Rice to his hometown in England in 2006 in a further personalizing of the close relationship between the United States and Britain.

Source : PTI