POWELL: I'm still working on my schedule, so I don't have an announcement for you now.
But I'm meeting with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom this afternoon. So I will remain engaged, either here or by telephone or in the region.
And of course, when I'm in Sharm el-Sheikh, I'll have the opportunity to see a number of Arab leaders. But I don't have a complete schedule in place yet.
I think I have time for one more.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, to what extent do you feel that your resignation now will affect your ability to carry out what you intend to carry out over the next few weeks? And what do you intend to do next?
POWELL: With respect to the first question, I'm still the secretary of state and, as President Bush has made it clear, I operate with his full authority.
And so I think that would be recognized by the people that I deal with around the world.
And I have good relations with most of the leaders in the nations that I will be working with and visiting. So I think I'll be able to be quite effective for the remaining period of my term.
And what am I going to do next? I don't know.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) in government, secretary of state, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, national security adviser, two combat tours in Vietnam. What has been the most satisfying experience of your public service and what has been your greatest regret?
POWELL: I have avoided studiously over the many years of my career to, sort of, single out one being more important or best than the other.
Each and every one of the things that I've done in a career of service that now is almost 40 years, they all were important. They all had meaning to me. They all, in some way or another, in my judgment, contributed to the welfare of the nation, whether it was being a second lieutenant in Germany or being the secretary of state.
The greatest pleasure comes from working with like-minded people in all the organizations I have been a part of serving the nation.
In every one of these jobs, there have been high points and low points. And what you have to learn to do in government or in life is to work through problems, seize the opportunities as they come along, deal with the crises and challenges as they come along. And that's always the way I've tried to live my life in public service.
And the greatest privilege I've had over the last four years is to be the leader of tens of thousands of wonderful employees of this department, whether they're civil servants, Foreign Service officers, management specialists, Foreign Service nationalists, who work so hard on the front lines of freedom, in the front lines of our foreign policy, who are at risk every single day and serve their nation so proudly.
And it's been a privilege for me to have been given the opportunity to lead them for these last four years. And I will lead them up until the day I depart.
Thank you.
