McCain to talk security on Europe and Mideast trip

By Steve Holland

BOSTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain says he will emphasize national security issues from Afghanistan to global climate change on a visit to Europe and the Middle East next week.

McCain, who will be his party's presidential nominee to face the Democrats' choice in the November election, will visit Israel, Britain and France as part of a congressional delegation.

He will be joined by two of his closest Senate allies, Democrat-turned-Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham.

McCain told reporters on his campaign bus on Wednesday that while many in Europe might want to take his measure as a potential president, he was going as a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, not as a candidate.

"I won't be offering them my vision because I'm going as a member of the Armed Services Committee, not as the nominee of our party," said McCain, who at 71 would be the oldest person ever elected to a first presidential term.

Still, the visit gives him an excuse to grab some headlines and television news time that is otherwise being taken up by the fierce Democratic contest between Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

While riding in his bus from New Hampshire to Boston, McCain sometimes gazed overhead at a television showing the Fox News Channel and saw the Democrats dominating coverage with occasional snatches of himself on the screen.

He said he would avoid politics on his trip "by not talking politics, only talking national security."