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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton raised eyebrows on her first visit to Europe as secretary of state when she mispronounced her EU counterparts' names and claimed U.S. democracy was older than Europe's.

Clinton has set herself a grueling pace on visits to Egypt, Israel and Brussels soon after touring the Far East, attending dozens of meetings and giving speech after speech, with little time worked into her schedule for sleep.

Tiredness appeared to show Friday when she answered questions in front of 500 young Europeans at the European Parliament, where she was the highest-ranking U.S. visitor since the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1985.

A veteran politician, Clinton compared the complex European political environment to that of the two-party U.S. system, before adding:

"I have never understood multiparty democracy.

"It is hard enough with two parties to come to any resolution, and I say this very respectfully, because I feel the same way about our own democracy, which has been around a lot longer than European democracy."

The remark provoked much headshaking in the parliament of a bloc that likes to trace back its democratic tradition thousands of years to the days of classical Greece.

One working lunch later with EU leaders, Clinton raised more eyebrows when she referred to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who stood beside her, as "High Representative Solano."

She also dubbed European Commission External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner as "Benito."

Still, Clinton has been well received in Brussels, where the Obama administration has been viewed as a breath of fresh air after the unpopular leadership of George W. Bush. His secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, often drew protests on her travels.

Fellow foreign ministers stood and applauded Clinton's presentation at a meeting with NATO counterparts Thursday and extra space had to be set aside for a spillover audience of 800 at the European Parliament.

Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering was effusive in his praise, saying that with the new administration, the United States and Europe once again "share the same values."

"What you said mostly could have been said by a European," he told Clinton after she fielded questions ranging from climate change to energy security and aid to Africa and one on gay rights from a participant wearing an "I love Hillary" t-shirt.

Monroe wrote:But on the other hand the Netherlands and Cromwell both predate American republicanism by a hundred plus years. So Europe still wins.

Captain Seafort wrote:

Monroe wrote:But on the other hand the Netherlands and Cromwell both predate American republicanism by a hundred plus years. So Europe still wins.

The Netherlands, fair enough, but what's a military dictatorship got to do with democracy? A better mark would be the Glorious Revolution - that's when modern English democracy really began (and it still predates the US by the best part of a century).

Monroe wrote:Proving what I have been saying all along. She should not have been Secretary of State.
That said it could be argued that American democracy is older. Because America is not a virtual democracy like Athens was. And modern democracies are more related to American style. But on the other hand the Netherlands and Cromwell both predate American republicanism by a hundred plus years. So Europe still wins.

Tsukiyumi wrote:I'm just glad she isn't the president.

Rochey wrote:Aye, it'd look like Bush the Third, with the president making a whole load of dumb comments about various countries.