Karen Hughes, a close confidante of President George W Bush and the State Department's top imagemaker, will visit Indonesia and Malaysia next week after her recent Middle East tour, she said Friday.

Hughes, undersecertary of state for public diplomacy, announced her Asian swing herself but gave no details. She also said missions to Latin America and Europe were in the works.

"I'm headed on another listening trip. Next week, I'm off to Indonesia and Malaysia," she told the Forum for Public Diplomacy held at George Washington University.

She said that after visiting the two Asian Muslim countries she would wind up her trip by attending a US chiefs of mission conference in Hawaii.

Hughes was sworn in a month ago and given the delicate job of polishing the United States's global image that has taken a battering in the Muslim world and elsewhere over the Iraq war and other disputes.

Also going to Europe

She quickly embarked on what she called a "listening tour" of the Middle East, but acknowledged Friday that her job encompassed more than the Arab world.

"I am very much cognizant of the need to pay attention to the wider world. And, particularly living in Texas, I see a lot from Latin America of the rise of anti-Americanism that's being promoted by certain parties there," she said.

Hughes said she was planning to travel to Latin America "for one of my early trips," but gave no dates. She said a mission to Europe would be scheduled "in the months ahead."

Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli had no immediate details on Hughes' trip to Indonesia and Malaysia.

But he said it was part of her efforts "to reach out and participate in a dialogue with countries and peoples who are important to the United States, who we need to have a good understanding with."

"I think it builds on her experience on the last trip," Ereli said. "And I think it's part of a continuing effort to get out there and see what the reality is in the field as far as perceptions of the United States are."