In an interview to the Financial Times, the first after the November 2 presidential election, Powell said "the president is not going to trim his sails or pull back. It's a continuation of his principles, his policies, his beliefs."
Stressing that Bush had won a mandate to pursue a foreign policy that was in the US national interest, he said that that policy would also be in the interest of friends and alliances. While it would be "multilateral in nature", the US would act alone where necessary, he said.
US foreign policy had been "aggressive in terms of going after challenges, issues," and the president was "going to keep moving in this direction," he told the Times.
'While referring to the controversy over Iraq and the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Mr Powell stressed that an aggressive foreign policy also covered an active approach to combating AIDS and developing world issues,' the Financial Times said.
The transition of power that was taking place in West Asia as Yassir Arafat lay ill in a Paris hospital presented a chance to move the peace process forward, he said.
"We are ready to seize this opportunity aggressively," he told the Times, indicating Washington's readiness to join British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is due to visit the White House this week, in making West Asia a priority.
The West Asia peace process is "one of the biggest overhangs in our foreign policy, the way it is perceived," he said.
He also said there was no agreement yet between Iran and the European Union three of Britain, France and Germany on its nuclear programme. The US had not endorsed a European proposal and Iran should not be given another chance to "slip away" from referral to the United Nations Security Council, he said.
However, "regime change" was not the US policy towards Iran, he reiterated.
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