Â鶹ӰÊÓ

As Hillary Clinton prepares to be confirmed as U.S. secretary of state, she is speaking confidently about the diplomatic ambitions of the incoming presidential administration she will serve.

Clinton told those present at her Washington confirmation hearing on Tuesday that the Barack Obama-led administration will seek to make America a bigger player on the world stage by building bridges through diplomatic means.

"We must build a world with more partners and fewer adversaries," she said.

"America cannot solve the most pressing problems on our own and the world cannot solve them without America."

The Middle East

She told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that however "intractable the Middle East's problems may seem," American leaders "cannot give up on peace."

Pointing to the conflict in Gaza, Clinton said the United States must "increase our determination" to help broker a peace arrangement that will bring security to both sides.

"The president-elect and I understand and are deeply sympathetic to Israel's desire to defend itself under the current conditions, and to be free of shelling by Hamas rockets," she said.

"However, we have also been reminded of the tragic humanitarian costs of conflict in the Middle East, and pained by the suffering of Palestinian and Israeli civilians."

In Afghanistan and Pakistan, Clinton said the Obama administration will take a broader approach in dealing with Islamic extremism and the challenges that it brings to American interests.

She said the United States would need to use "smart power" when pursuing diplomatic relations in the Middle East.

University of Montreal political scientist Bruce Hicks said the mention of smart power was "a major shift" from the way the foreign policy used by the Bush administration.

"This idea of smart power is a marriage of three pillars, which is defence, development and diplomacy," he told Â鶹ӰÊÓnet on Tuesday.

Hicks said Clinton's remarks on Tuesday sent "a very strong signal" that development and diplomacy will be a major part of the approach by the incoming administration.

The Americas

Clinton said the United States needed to maintain its strong ties with both Canada and Mexico, the two countries she named as "our biggest suppliers of imported energy."

The United States must also pay special attention to the "shared dangers" of drug trafficking along the Mexican-U.S. border, as well as other border challenges, she said.

Throughout the Americas and the Caribbean, stronger ties are needed, too, Clinton said.

"We will return to a policy of vigorous involvement -- partnership even -- with Latin America, from the Caribbean, to Central America, to South America," Clinton said.

"We share common political, economic and strategic interests with our friends to the south, as well as many of our citizens who share ancestral and cultural legacies."

Confirmation expected to be uneventful

While some legislators had suggested that the global fundraising activities of former president Bill Clinton could pose ethical conflicts for the secretary of state-designate, experts who talked to Â鶹ӰÊÓnet expected her confirmation hearing was unlikely to bring any controversy.

York University assistant professor Stephen Newman said it was unlikely that the secretary of state-designate would see any hard questions during her confirmation hearing because she was well-known to her colleagues in Washington.

"I don't actually expect them to push her at all -- this is a Democratic Congress, she is a former Democratic senator," he said.

"She is well-liked...she worked successfully with Republicans as well as Democrats in her time in the Senate. There is generally good feeling about the incoming administration, so I don't think there is going to be any hard questioning at all."

Ted Piccone, of Washington's Brookings Institution, told Â鶹ӰÊÓnet that Clinton's confirmation will mark "a unique historical moment where a former First Lady is before her colleagues about to take on a top diplomatic position."

He said Clinton was "a fascinating and incredibly well-qualified candidate" for secretary of state.

"(She's) someone who has spent eight years in the White House, travelling around the world with very high level engagement of other leaders," Piccone said in a phone interview from Washington.

"And then (during) her time in the Senate, she was a very strong student of both foreign and defence policy and now that's an important role she will play in trying to integrate all instruments of all foreign policy."

Newman agreed that Clinton's experience left her "more than up to the task" of becoming the United States' next secretary of state.

"She has a great deal of knowledge about the world, I think she has the confidence of the administration," he said.

With files from The Associated Press