Beirut (Lebanon): US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit to Beirut on Monday in a show of support for that country's weakened democracy, which is struggling to contain the fighting between the Hezbollah militia and Israel.
Rice planned to meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, other leaders of his government and members of parliament about the surge in fighting along the southern border in the last two weeks.
Saniora greeted Rice, kissing her on both cheeks. On her way into the meeting, Rice told him, ''Thank you for your courage and steadfastness.''
Her visit is intended to make a show of support and concern for both the Saniora government and the Lebanese people, administration officials said.
She also plans to talk with Lebanese leaders about how the central government can gain control of the entire country.
Rice has said her trip this week to the region will find ways to get much humanitarian aid to Lebanon.
She plans to announce US financial aid in her stops. But her mission took a dramatic turn with her arrival here under heavy security.
''We all want to urgently end the fighting. We have absolutely the same goal,'' Rice told reporters traveling with her.
Under heavy guard, Rice flew over the Mediterranean from Cyprus. She arrived still resisting international pressure to call from an immediate cease-fire. As Rice's motorcade sped through Beirut on the way to her meeting with Saniora, aides said the idea to stop in Lebanon was Rice's.
R Nicholas Burns, US undersecretary of state for political affairs, said Monday that Rice will seek to use ''our influence to see if there can be a cessation of hostilities.''
However, he told CBS' ''The Early Show,'' any cease-fire would have to be long-lasting and involve a removal of Hezbollah rockets on the US-Lebanese border and a return of Israeli soldiers taken captive.
En route to the region, Rice discussed the role of Syria, which the US considers one of the world's state sponsors of terror. In recent weeks, the Bush administration has blamed it, along with Iran, for stoking the recent violence in the Middle East by encouraging the Lebanese Hezbollah militia to attack northern Israel.
Rice pointed out that there are existing channels for talking with Syrian leaders about resolving the Mideast crisis when they're ready to talk.
''The problem isn't that people haven't talked to the Syrians. It's that the Syrians haven't acted,'' she said. ''I think this is simply just a kind of false hobby horse that somehow it's because we don't talk to the Syrians.
''It's not as if we don't have diplomatic relations,'' she said. ''We do.''
The US ambassador to Damascus was recalled last year after the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Syrian officials have been blamed for the murder, which Damascus denies.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia are working to entice Syria to end support for Hezbollah, a move that is central to resolving the conflict in Lebanon and unhitching Damascus from its alliance with Iran, the Shiite Muslim guerrillas' other main backer.
Arab diplomats in Cairo said the United States had signaled a willingness to re-engage Syria through Washington's encouragement of the Egyptians and Saudis to lean on Damascus to stop backing Hezbollah.
In a brazen raid into Israel on July 12, Hezbollah killed eight and captured two Israeli soldiers, provoking Israel's biggest military campaign against Lebanon in 24 years. The fighting has left hundreds of civilians dead, mostly in Lebanon.
Rice and President Bush have resisted pressure for an immediate cease-fire, saying that any peace agreement must come with right conditions to ensure that it is sustainable.
They particularly want to see an agreement that would help Lebanon control its entire territory, including the southern third that is dominated by Hezbollah.
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