Rice tells Olmert she concerned about Gaza civilians

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice alights from her airplane upon her arrival at Tokyo's Haneda airport February 27, 2008.

TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice voiced concern about Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to "make the terrorists pay a very painful price".

But Rice, who met Olmert in Tokyo on Thursday, stopped short of an explicit call for Israel to exercise restraint in dealing with rocket attacks by Islamic group Hamas.

A surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence along the border of Gaza has raised fears of a full-scale conflict amid public pressure on Olmert for tougher military action to deal with rocket attacks by the Islamic group, Hamas.

A rocket launched from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip killed a man in Israel on Wednesday, the first such death in nine months, and Israeli air strikes killed six Palestinian militants and five civilians in the territory.

Rice will visit Israel and the Palestinian territories next week to try to push along U.S.-brokered peace talks complicated by the growing violence.

Asked if she had urged Olmert not to use disproportionate force in responding to rocket attacks from Gaza, Rice told reporters: "I think that's not a good way to address this issue. The issue is that the attacks -- rocket attacks -- need to stop."

She said she had reiterated to Olmert U.S. concerns about the humanitarian situation.

"I am concerned about the humanitarian conditions there and innocent people in the Gaza who are being hurt. We have to remember that the Hamas activities there are responsible for what has happened in Gaza ... But of course we are concerned about innocent people and we are concerned about the humanitarian situation," she said after the one-hour breakfast meeting.

BATTLE UNDER WAY

Olmert said Israel would continue to strike back. "We are at the height of the battle," Olmert, who toured a Nissan Motor Co plant southwest of Tokyo after meeting Rice, told reporters.

"And this is a long process. We have no magic formula to resolve it. This is a painful process. We get painful hits and we hit back even harder ... We will make the terrorists pay a very painful price," he said.

As well as targeting armed men on the ground, Israel's air force bombed the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, witnesses said on Wednesday. The blast damaged nearby buildings, killing a 6-month-old baby and wounding at least 14 other people, hospital officials said.

The mounting violence could complicate the peace talks between Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority, which Washington hopes can lead to a deal on statehood this year.

Rice was wrapping up an Asian visit that took her to Seoul for the inauguration of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, and then to Beijing before she arrived in Tokyo.

(Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Bill Tarrant)