Kerry returns to Europe next week

(WASHINGTON) - US Secretary of State John Kerry, just back from a European tour centered on nuclear negotiations with Iran, will recross the Atlantic next week for a NATO meeting, the State Department said Wednesday.

The December 2-5 trip will take Kerry to Brussels, Basel and then London, a statement said.

He will attend a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels December 2, followed a day later by a ministerial meeting of the US-led coalition against Islamic State, the militant group active in Iraq and Syria.

He will also meet in Brussels with the European Union's new chief diplomat, Federica Mogherini, at a meeting of a US-EU energy council, the State Department said.

In Basel, Switzerland, Kerry will take part in a ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, in charge of monitoring a cease-fire between the Ukrainian army and separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.

He will also meet with Swiss President Didier Burkhalter to discuss the OSCE's role in the Ukraine crisis, State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said.

The secretary then goes to London December 4 for a conference on Afghanistan, meeting on the sidelines with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and chief executive Abdullah Abdullah, as well as with Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Kerry returned to Washington early Tuesday from Vienna where negotiations on Iran's nuclear program were extended until July 1 after diplomats failed to meet a deadline for reaching a comprehensive agreement.