JERUSALEM, Dec. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Saturday that he hopes the new year will bring Israel and the Palestinians peace and security.

    "We all need it and I intend to make every effort to reach it," Sharon said in a Christmas Eve statement issued by his office. Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem were underway when Jerusalem's Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah said Israel's separation wall has turned the West Bank city into a prison, Israel Radio reported.

    Sabbah called for the wall's dismantling, adding that instead "bridges of peace and love" should be built. Thousands of people packed Manger Square to watch Sabbah, the top Roman Catholic official in the country, enter Bethlehem for the Christmas celebrations.

    As he arrived, Sabbah criticized the Israeli military checkpoint at the entrance of Bethlehem.

    "Nobody needs checkpoints in the Holy Land. This is the Holy Land and it should be treated as a holy area," he said. "We wish that this road will stay open so all Christian pilgrims can enter every day of the year, every year."

    Holiday spirit returned to Bethlehem on Saturday for the first time in six years as hundreds of pilgrims from around the world packed the town of Jesus' birth for Christmas Eve celebrations. Lining the streets on a crisp, windy day, pilgrims gathered in Manger Square - near the Church of the Nativity, built over the grotto where tradition says Jesus was born - to watch a procession of marching bands, bagpipe players and boy scout parades.

    Heavy winds blew the hats off the heads of boy scouts and police officers and knocked down metal security barriers. Yet the streets remained packed with visitors excited about spending Christmas in one of the holiest Christian sites in the world.

    More than 30,000 people were expected to flock to Bethlehem in what would be the largest turnout since fighting erupted in September 2000, but the bleak gray concrete slabs of Israel's separation barrier at the entrance to town provided a constant reminder of the lingering conflict. Enditem