Updated at 10:25 a.m. ET: BELFAST — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday condemned a wave of street violence in Northern Ireland, saying it showed the peace process she has long supported in the British province was not yet complete.

Making one of her last foreign trips in her current job, she visited a province transformed by the 1998 peace agreement that her husband Bill Clinton helped bring about in what was regarded as one of the greatest successes of his presidency.

But Northern Ireland remains riven by sectarian tensions and Clinton arrived in a week that has seen three riots, the seizure of a bomb over 62 miles outside Belfast, and the arrest of four militant nationalists.

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The latest riot erupted Thursday night when a policeman was injured after protesters hurled missiles to vent their anger against nationalist councilors who voted to remove the British flag atop Belfast City Hall.

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Police said Friday that four men were arrested after a "viable bomb" was recovered from a car in a nationalist area of Derry overnight. A letter bomb was also found in a County Down postbox with the capacity "to kill or cause serious injury."

"It has been a sad reminder unfortunately that despite how hardy the peace has been, there are still those who not only would test it but try to destroy it," Clinton said.

"I really commend the leaders and citizens who have condemned the violence— and I join them in condemning it — to remind us all that peace comes through dialogue and debate, not violence," she added.

Important for 2016?
However, Clinton's visit, during which politicians from both sides of the political divide briefed her on the peace process, was a reminder of the huge popularity of her family in Ireland, a potential asset in attracting the Irish-American vote if Clinton decided to run for the U.S. presidency in 2016.

The province has suffered one of the world's worst property market crashes and its leaders are hoping for the kind of U.S. foreign investment that has transformed the rest of Ireland.

"Our need is more economic now than political," said Reg Empey, Chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party, who was a senior figure in the peace process.

Cops hurt as British unionist protesters try to storm Belfast City Hall in flag spat

"But we also have to be aware that there is still a degree of volatility ... and in those circumstances I think we should make sure we keep the relationship going," he said.

Peace process
Hillary Clinton traveled to Northern Ireland several times in the mid-1990s while her husband helped broker the 1998 Good Friday peace accord. His hands-on approach was widely recognized as crucial at moments when the agreement looked like crumbling.

Bill Clinton's work helped win over the Irish vote during his re-election campaign in 1996 and his popularity among Irish-Americans could rub off on his wife if she needed it.

Clinton on Thursday told journalists in Dublin she was "too focused on what I'm doing" to think about a run for the presidency and declined to comment on U.S. newspaper reports that her husband may be appointed as Washington's next ambassador to the Republic of Ireland.

Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

Personal ties
As first lady, Clinton lent support to pro-peace women's groups in Northern Ireland and visited people wounded in the 1998 Omagh bombing, the deadliest attack in three decades of violence commonly known as the "Troubles."

At least 3,600 people were killed during that time as Catholic nationalists seeking union with Ireland fought British security forces and mainly Protestant Loyalists determined to remain part of the United Kingdom.

"The lessons learned here in Ireland about how to build peace could be of great use to other peoples and nations," Clinton said Thursday in a speech in Dublin in which she recalled a meeting between Catholic and Protestant women in Belfast in the 1990s.

"There are so many more ties that bind us than divide us, and that is what has motivated me over many years now," she said.

NBC News' Catherine Chomiak and Reuters contributed to this report.

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CANBERRA, Australia -- Small South Pacific island nations are cashing in on new aid rivalry between China and the United States as both powers vie to boost their influence in a vast region of mostly micro-nations.

The recent visit to the tiny Cook Islands by United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton highlighted the growing significance of the region as the United States continues its "pivot" to the Asia-Pacific, analysts said.

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The Clinton visit also underlined a growing Chinese influence as it steps up its aid programs to enhance its standing among the smaller nations.

"It is very significant. It just confirms that the Pacific is becoming of greater importance, not less," Stephen Howes, professor of development policy at the Australian National University, told Reuters.

'Big enough for all of us': Clinton says US can work with China in Pacific

China's aid program is difficult to measure, although a report by the Lowy Institute think tank in 2011 found China's aid was worth around $200 million a year, with a heavy reliance on soft loans -- a loan with a below-market interest rate -- to finance public works.

In recent years, China's aid and soft loans have helped build sports stadiums in Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands, a swimming complex in Samoa, a new port in Tonga, as well as extensions to the Royal Palace in the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa.

China has also funded a new police station and court buildings in the Cook Islands capital Raratonga, and boosted aid to Fiji as western nations shunned its military government after the 2006 military coup.

'Cooperation, not competition'
During her visit to the Cook Islands, Clinton announced an extra $32 million in U.S. aid programs for the Pacific, ensuring the U.S. maintains its role as the second-largest aid donor to the region behind Australia.

Much at stake for US as tensions rise in troubled China Seas

Clinton also said the United States could work with China in the Pacific, and played down any new China-U.S. rivalry.

The United States spends about $300 million a year on Pacific nations, including round $100 million a year on military assistance, compared to around $1.2 billion a year from Australia.

China says it is merely seeking to help the poor and remote nations in the region develop.

"We are willing to make a contribution, along with all other parties, to help with sustainable development in the South Pacific. We are looking for cooperation, not competition," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.

In the past, China's aid flows into the Pacific have been designed to head off potential spending from Taiwan and to try to prevent tiny nations giving official recognition to Taiwan, which China considers a breakaway province to be united with the mainland eventually, and by force if necessary.

For more coverage on China, visit NBC's Behind The Wall

But in the past three years, China and Taiwan have agreed to stop trying to poach Pacific nations to their side.

"At the moment, it is more to do with the United States than it is with Taiwan," Lowy Institute South Pacific analyst Annemaree O'Keeffe told Reuters.

She said China's aid programs had undergone significant changes as it recognised deeper problems with its traditional monument projects, where China might construct a major building but then leave a country struggling to maintain it.

"It can work against them. You can have a wonderful sports stadium, but if it starts to fall down, you'll remember that the Chinese built it," O'Keeffe said.

She said China had begun to work more closely with other countries and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on the effectiveness of its aid programs.

China seeking positive image?
That was evident at the Pacific Islands Forum in Raratonga, where China and New Zealand announced a joint aid program to improve water supplies in the Cook Islands. New Zealand will provide $12 million and China will provide a $26 million loan.

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The ANU's Howes said China's growing aid influence in the Pacific was simply a reflection of its rising global influence and as more countries, including Indonesia and Brazil, start to spend more on aid.

"It is a global phenomenon of China reaching out," he said. "More broadly, it is China asserting itself as a global power and expanding its aid and investment from state-owned companies."

He said China was keen to project a positive image, which is why China's aid focused on high-profile projects, although China could do more to ensure its aid programs were transparent.

The downside, however, is that countries might struggle to repay China's soft loans, leaving them worse off in the long run, he said.

Australia, a close U.S. ally which counts China as its top trading partner, has welcomed China's interest in the Pacific, and said China's aid program was no cause for concern.

"I don't think Chinese influence in the South Pacific is anything to alarm us," Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr told reporters in Perth in last week.

"The fact is, China's rise to being a great power -- China's economic growth -- will see that it develops relations around the world more vigorously than it ever has in the past and we Australians have just got to get used to it.

"The Chinese will learn that a heavy-handed aid program doesn't get them the kudos that a better targeted more professional aid program does."

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RAROTONGA, Cook Islands -- The United States will buttress security partnerships across the Pacific as it strengthens ties with island nations, but also hopes to work more closely with China as Beijing expands its own influence in the region, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Friday.

Clinton arrived in the tiny Pacific outpost of the Cook Islands for this year's Pacific Islands Forum, part of Washington's effort to woo nations across the Asia-Pacific which are increasingly coming under China's shadow.

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Clinton told the gathering, which represents 16 independent and self-governing states ranging from Australia and New Zealand to smaller islands such as Tuvalu and Nauru, that the United States was in the region for the long haul.

But she also played down growing perceptions of a U.S.-China rivalry in the region, declaring "the Pacific is big enough for all of us" and dismissing the notion that expanded U.S. activity was "a hedge against particular countries."

Much at stake for US as tensions rise in troubled China Seas

"We think it is important for the Pacific Island nations to have good relationships with as many partners as possible, and that includes China as well as the United States," Clinton told a news conference with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.

"We want to see more international development projects that include the participation of China," Clinton said, citing disaster relief, maritime security and preserving bio-diversity.

"We think that there's a great opportunity to work with China and we're going to be looking for more ways to do that," she said.

For more coverage on China, visit NBC's Behind The Wall

China's Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai is also attending the Pacific forum and told reporters Beijing's presence in the Pacific was not about geo-political influence.

"We are here in this region not to seek any particular influence, still less dominance," Cui told a news conference before Clinton made her remarks.

"We are here to work with island countries to achieve sustainable development, because both China and the Pacific island countries belong to the rank of developing countries.

"Although we are far away geographically, although we have different national conditions....we are faced with very similar tasks of achieving sustainable development, of improving the lives of our peoples."

$32 million in new aid
Despite her softer tone on China -- which comes just four days before she pays a visit to Beijing next week -- Clinton also sought to underscore the benefits of the "American model of partnership" in a region where China has in recent years dramatically stepped up its diplomacy and foreign assistance.

She announced more than $32 million in new U.S. programs on issues ranging from sustainable development, climate change and marine protection.

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But Clinton also stressed that the United States plays a crucial security role in the region, noting that the U.S. Coast Guard already has formal partnerships with nine Pacific Island nations and was working to build more as part of a broader "pivot" to the Asia-Pacific.

"All of us have an interest in maintaining peace and security in the Pacific," Clinton said, adding the United States was committed to helping fight illegal and unregulated shipping, patrol fishing grounds, and combat other human trafficking.

In a signal of Washington's security emphasis on the region, U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) chief Admiral Samuel Locklear also traveled to Rarotonga to hail joint maritime exercises and cooperation on issues such as cleaning up unexploded ordinance left over from the Second World War.

"U.S. PACOM is committed to supporting our Pacific Island partners," Locklear said.

Rivalry with China
Clinton's trip to the South Pacific has spurred some criticism in China, where some commentators accused the United States of seeking to stir up trouble as Beijing's economic and political influence expands.

In recent trips to other regions of the world, most notably Africa, Clinton has sought to contrast the U.S. approach to cooperative economic development with other models such as China's, which focus more on condition-free loans and extractive industries such as mining and timber.

Beijing is financing projects across the region including constructing parliament buildings, airports, roads and hospitals and giving out grants for Chinese language instruction.

Clinton depicted these efforts, which some local analysts say appear aimed at building Beijing's influence in multilateral organizations such as the United Nations, as not necessarily at odds with U.S. interests -- although she pointedly noted that sometimes China's methods were open to criticism.

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"Here in the Pacific we want to see China act in a fair and transparent way," Clinton said.

The three-day visit by Clinton and the 60-odd person U.S. delegation to the Cook Islands - which is in free association with New Zealand - was a major event for the nation's main island of Rarotonga, which has only about 11,000 people.

"We are encouraged by you and your government's commitment to strengthen the United States government's engagement in our region," Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna said in his welcoming remarks.

Clinton's trip will continue to Indonesia and China next week, where her new conciliatory tone will be put the test in talks expected to focus on rising tensions in the South China Sea where Beijing is at odds with several of its southern neighbors over territorial claims.

A summit of regional leaders in July failed to reach consensus on how to handle the disputes. Clinton will press them to find common ground and hash out a framework for negotiating with China, U.S. officials said.

One senior official told reporters that it was "absolutely manifest" that ASEAN nations find a way to deal with China. "It's not a matter of geo-strategy, it's a matter of geography," the official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly preview the discussions, said Clinton would be stressing the U.S. view "that it is absolutely essential that cooler heads prevail in every capital and that great care be taken on these issues."

The U.S. takes no position on the sovereignty of the disputed territories, though some are claimed by allies such as South Korea, Japan and the Philippines as well as China, but "insists that they are dealt with diplomatically, without coercion (and) without the threat of the use of force." 

Clinton will finish the trip with stops in Brunei and East Timor before heading to the Russian port city of Vladivostok, where she will represent U.S. President Barack Obama at this year's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit of regional leaders.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The “significant” defection of a Syrian general could trigger more high-level defections from President Bashar Assad’s regime, Pentagon and diplomatic sources said Friday.

News of the defection spread as a 100-nation meeting in Paris concluded with calls for global sanctions against Syria to help end 16 months of brutal government repression and civil war that activists say have killed 14,000 people.

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Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby called the defection of Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlas a "crack in the inner circle" of Assad's administration.

Assad and Tlas were childhood friends, and Tlas was considered a confidant of the president.

While Tlas would be considered the highest-ranking member of the military closest to Assad to defect, the general had been placed under house arrest in March 2011 for his opposition to the government's crackdown on militants.

Tlas, a Sunni, had also attempted but failed to bring the Assad regime and Sunni elements of the opposition together.

Some members of the opposition have said they believe Tlas fled Syria only to try to save his family's fortune.

Game-changer? General, close friend of Assad, deserts Syria

U.S. officials could not confirm to NBC News reports that Tlas is on his way to Paris, where many of his family reside.

One U.S. official told NBC News that there was no direct contact between the State Department and Tlas.

Still, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking after the international meeting in Paris on Friday, hailed Tlas’ defection.

“Regime insiders and the military establishment are starting to vote with their feet" by abandoning the four-decade Assad dynasty, she told reporters.

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"We think that is a very promising development. It also raises questions for those remaining in Damascus, who are still supporting this regime."

Clinton also called for Russia and China, which were not represented at the Paris meeting, to stop standing in the way of sanctions against Syria.

"I will tell you very frankly, I don't believe Russia and China believe they are paying any price at all,” Clinton said. “Nothing at all for standing up on behalf of the Assad regime. The only way that will change is that if every nation represented here directly and urgently makes it clear that Russia and China will pay a price because they are holding up progress, blockading it. That is no longer tolerable."

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Analysts said the Paris meeting accomplished little despite stepped-up rhetoric.

“There is some solace Gen. Tlas has left Syria,” Aram Nerguizian, a Syria expert at Washington, D.C.-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, told msnbc.com. But the Paris meeting left “no change in dynamics that is any way measurable ... I don’t think you have a big reshuffle of Russia position.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the Interfax news agency Friday that Clinton's statement went against the strategy for ending the bloodshed in Syria that was agreed to by world powers last Saturday in Geneva.

That agreement, brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan, said a transitional governing body "shall be formed on the basis of mutual consent." An earlier draft was watered down after Russia stonewalled, adamant that Assad should not be forced out.

Syrian rebels dismissed the importance of the Paris meeting, saying sanctions weren't working.

They called for military intervention.

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At the conference, Hassem Hashimi, a member of Syria's opposition National Council, called for a no-fly zone to prevent military forces from "flying over defected soldiers and civilians and bombarding them."

"We're sick of meetings and deadlines. We want action on the ground," said activist Osama Kayal, speaking via Skype from an area near Khan Sheikhoun.

This article includes reporting by NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski and Adrienne Mong, msnbc.com's Brinley Bruton, Reuters and The Associated Press.

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Updated at 8:21 a.m. ET: LONDON -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested that Syria's opposition will ultimately arm itself and said she would bet against President Bashar Assad staying in power.

Her comments came ahead of a meeting of Western and Arab nations on Friday that was expected to demand that Syria implement an immediate cease-fire to allow aid in for desperate civilians in bombarded cities such as Homs amid an 11-month-old revolt.

Speaking directly to Russia and China, which have blocked U.N. Security Council resolutions designed to end the violence in Syria, Clinton said Thursday that the government's "brutality" against its own people was unsustainable in the Internet age.

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"The strategy followed by the Syrians and their allies is one that can't stand the test of legitimacy or even brutality for any length of time," Clinton told reporters in London.

"There will be increasingly capable opposition forces. They will from somewhere, somehow, find the means to defend themselves as well as begin offensive measures," she added.

GOP rivals back arming Syria's rebels

"It is clear to me there will be a breaking point," Clinton said. "I wish it would be sooner, so that more lives would be saved, than later, but I have absolutely no doubt there will be such a breaking point."

Western and Arab foreign ministers were due to meet in Tunis on Friday.

The "Friends of Syria" meeting, that Clinton will attend, will call on Syrian forces to stop firing to give international aid groups access to areas worst hit by the violence which are running out of medicine and food, according to a draft declaration obtained by Reuters. 

Activists demand cease-fire, aid access in Syria

The draft also "recognized the Syrian National Council as a legitimate representative of Syrians seeking peaceful democratic change," a phrase which appeared to fall short of full endorsement of the most prominent group opposed to Assad.

About 70 nations, including the United States, Turkey, and European and Arab countries that want Assad to step down, will take part in the talks, but Russia and China, which have jointly vetoed two U.N. Security Council resolutions on Syria, say they will stay away.

U.S. officials avoided answering questions on whether the group may discuss the possibility of arming the opposition, something that some nations favor and that the United States, in a change in emphasis, on Tuesday suggested could become an alternative.

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Alexei Pushkov, a Russian lawmaker, said Friday after meeting Assad that the Syrian president sounded confident and demonstrated no sign he would he step aside. Pushkov warned that arming the Syrian opposition would fuel civil war.

The Syrian military pounded rebel-held Sunni Muslim districts of the besieged city of Homs for the 20th day on Thursday, despite international protest over the previous day's death toll of more than 80, including two Western journalists, activists said.

Assad's tanks move in to Syrian rebel stronghold

Overnight, at least two people were killed as Syrian troops resumed the shelling of Homs, activists said.

More than 5,400 people have been killed in the nearly year-old uprising.

The draft conclusion of the "Friends of Syria" meeting also calls on Damascus "immediately to cease all violence" and pledges to deliver humanitarian supplies within 48 hours if Syria "stopped its assault on civilian areas and permitted access."

The group will also commit to enforce sanctions aimed at pressuring Syria authorities to halt violence, including travel bans, asset freezes, a halt to purchase of Syrian oil, ceasing infrastructure investment and financial services relating to Syria, reducing diplomatic ties and preventing arms shipments to the Syrian government.

If Assad fails to comply within 72 hours, a senior administration official in Washington said repercussions from the Tunis group might include new steps to plug the gap in sanctions Syria has tried to evade, including efforts to move money through Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe.

Another possibility, the official said, would be broadening an arms embargo already enforced by the United States, the European Union and Turkey, and being more rigorous in forcing the revocation of insurance for any ships that might carry weapons to Syria.

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The official said members of the "Friends of Syria" group were likely to pledge specific amounts of aid but did not expect them to consider arming the opposition. Arab diplomats have suggested, however, that formal or informal moves to arm the rebels may be discussed.

"One of the things you are going to see coming out of the meeting tomorrow are concrete proposals on how we, the international community, plan to support humanitarian organizations ... within days, meaning that the challenge is on the Syrian regime to respond to this," said a U.S. official.

For more than a year the Syrian opposition has called for Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for four decades, to step down in the latest of the "Arab Spring" uprisings against authoritarian rulers in the Middle East.

The continued strife reflects both Assad's determination to remain in office as well as the major powers' inability to agree on a strategy on whether to try to ease, or force, him out.

Russia has repeatedly said it does not want a resolution to become a pretext for regime change, something it believes took place when the Security Council authorized the use of force to protect civilians in Libya and that ultimately helped drive former dictator Moammar Gadhafi from power.

Clinton, however, suggested Russia and China may not be able to sustain their opposition forever.

"The pressure will build on countries like Russia and China because world opinion is not going to stand idly by. Arab opinion is not going to be satisfied watching two nations, one for commercial reasons one for commercial and ideological reasons, bolstering a regime that is defying every rule of modern international norms," she added.

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