AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ Once there, he will shed his campaign role as Washington outsider.

It was Bush's first visit to Washington since his narrow victory over rival Al Gore.

The visit, which begins later Sunday, comes as Bush seeks to reach out to Democrats and heal wounds from the divisive five-week long legal battle over the election's outcome.

Bush was to spend three days meeting with congressional leaders from both parties, visiting Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, paying calls on Gore and President Clinton, and interviewing prospective Cabinet choices.

Before leaving Texas, Bush was expected to make several announcements on White House staff members, including Stanford University scholar Condoleezza Rice as his national security adviser.

The announcements come a day after Bush made his first Cabinet choice, retired Gen. Colin Powell as his secretary of state.

With tears in his eyes, Bush introduced the popular Gulf War hero on Saturday as "an American hero, an American example and a great American story."

For his part, Powell pledged to strengthen U.S. alliances and stand firm against nations that practice terrorism. "We will defend our interests from a position of strength," Powell said.

Shortly after the announcement, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C., said Powell will make an "exceptional" secretary of state and promised to gain his Senate confirmation before Bush's Jan. 20 inauguration.

Powell would become the first black secretary of state _ just as he was the first black to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Bush had promised diversity in his administration, a diversity he was to underscore again on Sunday with his selection of Rice, who is black, and a Hispanic, Alberto R. Gonzales, as White House counsel.

Gonzales, 45, is giving up his job as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court to accept the appointment, said associates of Gonzales.

Rice, 46, like Powell, served in the administration of Bush's father. Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff while Rice served as an expert on the Soviet Union on the National Security Council.

Bush, who has little experience in foreign affairs, emphasized his belief in a strong role for the United States.

"America has unique power and unmatched influence, and we will use them in the service of democracy, spreading peace across the world and across the years," he said.

Bush named Powell in an elementary school in Crawford, Texas, near his 1,600-acre ranch about 80 miles north of here.

Later, as he and Powell shared ham and cheese sandwiches at Bush's ranch house, the Texas governor told reporters why tears had come to his eyes when he was introducing the popular retired four-star general.

"It was emotional because I so admire Colin Powell. I love his story," Bush said. "It was a great moment and he's going to do a fantastic job."

Meanwhile, Bush's staff, reacting to questions about Bush's lack of foreign policy experience, released a list Saturday of more than a dozen countries that he had visited.

They included trips to Guatemala (business), France (vacation), Bermuda (vacation), Italy (with his family), Israel and Egypt (both with other governors), Gambia (with a delegation during the elder Bush administration) and Mexico and Canada "many, many times."

Bush also went to China when his dad was posted there as envoy in the 1980s, stopping over in Japan on the way home. And he has been to England and Scotland.

(Copyright 2000 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)