WHEN US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits Australia from March 16 she could well be asked about the Absent American.

The Absent American is the man or woman you would expect to be living in the US ambassador's residence in Canberra, but hasn't for more than a year.

That charming house, occupied by US envoys since Christmas 1943, has been strangely empty since Tom Schieffer took his suitcase down from the top of the wardrobe in February last year.

Schieffer, a close friend and former business partner of US President George W. Bush, is now ambassador to Japan, but has had no successor here.

The Absent American and the vacant house looking over the back of Parliament House and out over the lake, have vexed the minds of some interested in the US-Australia relationship.

Former trade minister and deputy prime minister Tim Fischer has been one of them.

Fischer has cheekily suggested that rather than go to waste, the residence could be used to give still-homeless victims of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans some R&R here.

More seriously he has said, "We're now a year without an ambassador, and it's going on a bit long."

Tim Fischer works promoting tourism to Australia, and the absence of an ambassador is bothering him and other business types.

The office of Foreign Minister Alexander Downer isn't worried: It's a matter for the Americans to deal with, not us.

However, Downer a few months ago did raise the matter of the Absent American during a visit to Washington, and there is no evidence he was given any solid assurances.

Apparently it bothered him enough back then to make inquiries, and it's hard to imagine he is totally satisfied with present arrangements.

Even in strict terms of functional diplomatic connections, the observation of protocol, it is an embarrassing vacuum.

William P. McCormick is no doubt doing a sterling job as US envoy to New Zealand, and Robert W. Fitts likewise is serving his nation's interests in Papua New Guinea. We have the Absent American.

There have been a couple of attempts to get an ambassador in the big house in Canberra but each time something has come up and the candidates have not been able to make the trip across the Pacific.

The quest is for someone who is personally, as well as politically, close to George Bush.

Bush has under three years left in his second and final term as President, so a new ambassador would not have a long tour of duty in Australia.

It's not that links between Canberra and Washington have suffered greatly. Deputy head of mission William Stanton is a capable and experienced professional diplomat standing in for an ambassador.

However, there is a broader question about the condition of Australia-US ties.

There has been rumbled discontent over the fact Secretary of State Rice ditched two previously scheduled visits here and, apparently, had to be talked into the impending visit from March 16-18.

Rice was here with President Bush in October 2003, before she was made Secretary of State. Since her elevation, her focus has been on the Middle East and not our Asia-Pacific region. The coming visit appears to be a hasty repair job on that lack of attention, with Australia lumped into a tour of Indonesia, Peru and Chile.

Downer has used Parliament to depict the Rice visit and relations generally with the US as functioning like a well-oiled machine. Contrary to suggestions that the US at the top level has been truant from security concerns in our region, Downer says they are heavily engaged.

During her visit, Rice will attend the first meeting of an Australia-US-Japan ministerial summit on security matters.

Elsewhere she has been lined up to meet Prime Minister John Howard, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson, Treasurer Peter Costello and Attorney-General Philip Ruddock.

"This visit underscores the importance of the American alliance," Downer told Parliament last week.

"We had the US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, here in November of last year.

"We are entirely unapologetic about our close relationship with the US. It is a country which we engage with very heavily over Asia-Pacific matters."

If the United States is so deeply involved in our region, it might be able to find one person to live in the ambassador's residence in Canberra.