U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit to Beirut on Monday to seek a "sustainable" cease-fire in Lebanon, where Hizbollah guerrillas and Israeli forces are fighting in the south.Rice met Prime Minister Fouad Siniora after her heavily guarded motorcade sped through Beirut from the U.S. embassy to the north where her helicopter had landed from Cyprus. "Thank you for your courage and steadfastness," she told Siniora, who has repeatedly pleaded for an immediate cease-fire.
On her way to the region, Rice said she was seeking a "sustainable" cease-fire in a war that has cost 373 dead in Lebanon and at least 37 Israeli lives in nearly two weeks. A U.S. official in Rice's party said she would announce aid for Lebanon, where Israeli bombing has displaced half a million people and wrecked installations worth an estimated $1 billion (539 million pounds).
Rice has no plans to meet Hizbollah leaders, but was due to see Shi'ite Muslim Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a pro-Syrian politician who has acted as a link between the Islamist group's leaders and Siniora since the war erupted.
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