One rediff.com journalist was twice at the receiving end of her dazzling charm when he asked Condi for an autograph not so long ago.

But look at these images from Wednesday's G-8 foreign ministers' meeting in Potsdam, Germany, and you notice something is obviously amiss with Condi.

Could it be that the Bush administration can no longer get its allies or rivals to listen to its point of view?

In the first image, Condi can't seem to keep the disgust off her pretty face as her encounter with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over Washington's plan to base part of a missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic degenerated into an ugly war of words.

In Russian, of course, since Condi speaks the language fluently and is, in fact, one of her country's leading experts on Putin country.

Lavrov told a press conference soon after the meeting: 'All the Americans are saying is "Don't worry, it is not being aimed at you", but our analysis is such answers are ludicrous.'

The bottom image has a more pensive Condi, sitting alongside France's new foreign minister, the flamboyant Bernard Kouchner.

Like Condi, Kouchner can use a Dr before his name; unlike the American who has a PhD in Russian studies, the Frenchman is a gastroenterologist.

Until last month, Dr Kouchner was a star of the Socialist Party, which lost the French presidential election to Nicholas Sarkozy. The new French leader startled party colleagues and the Socialists by naming Kouchner -- horrors! someone from the Opposition -- as his new foreign minister.

Like Sarkozy, Dr Kouchner, who co-founded the Nobel Prize-winning organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in 1971, is a marked change from the French leaders Condi has had to deal with in recent years. Both men are pronouncedly pro-American.

So what could be the reason for Condi's contemplation?

Could it be that Dr Kouchner -- who is as maverick as they come -- has just lectured her on what America needs to do to improve the state of the world?