Rice visits former bastion of Palestinian militants

JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited on Saturday a West Bank city that was once a bastion of Palestinian militants but is now held up by Washington as a model for self-government.

Making what may be her last official visit to the Palestinian territories, Rice toured a hospital renovated with U.S. funds and met security chiefs in Jenin where Palestinian forces deployed in May to try to impose the rule of law.

Jenin was the scene of an Israeli offensive on militants in 2002, when dozens of Palestinians and Israeli troops were killed. Israel continues to stage periodic raids despite the Palestinian deployments this year.

"Even under difficult circumstances, even with a difficult past, this is a place of hope, this is a place of inspiration, and ultimately it is a place from which the Palestinian state will spring forth," Rice said.

Palestinians deployed 600 security men in Jenin trained with U.S. funding and in coordination with Israel six months ago, in a move to help lay the groundwork for Palestinian statehood.

"The dark days of 2002, which I remember with an enormous sense of tragedy for the people of Jenin, of the horrible carnage here that it could be reborn in this way is in many ways an affirmation of the fact that nothing is impossible," Rice said at the Dr. Khalil Suleiman Hospital.

"It reminds us that even though this conflict has not ended decade after decade after decade, it is possible to end this conflict," she added. "I think that Jenin, in its own way, represents exactly that."

On a four-day trip to the Middle East, Rice has been trying to put the best face on the widely-acknowledged fact that there is little chance of achieving an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by U.S. President George W. Bush's end of the year target.

Throughout the trip, which has taken Rice to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories and will include a final stop in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Rice has argued the peace process is in better shape than when Bush came to office, and voiced confidence it will ultimately succeed.

The last U.S.-backed effort to end the six-decade conflict ended in 2000 with the eruption of a Palestinian uprising after peace talks failed, followed by years of violence.

Rice made the case that the peace effort Bush launched nearly a year ago in Annapolis, Maryland, needed to continue and to deal with the three elements of talks, improving the situation on the ground and building Palestinian institutions.

With Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad at her side, she praised his efforts to establish better basic services for the Palestinians and visited the hospital's maternity ward.

After cutting a ribbon to inaugurate the hospital wing, Rice then looked into a room with a mother and her newborn.

"Brand new babies. Nothing better," she said with a laugh.

(Writing by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)