CodingForums.com - jQuery ajax: Load and fadeIn

Hi,
This is an external html (external.html) I want to load into a page with ajax,

Code:

<div id="wrapper"> 

   <div id="contents">

     xxx

   </div>

</div>

This is the parent page,

Code:

<div>

    <ul>

        <li><a href="#" onclick="ajax_request(); return false;">1</a></li>

    </ul>

</div>



<div class="bottom" id="studies">

</div>

This is the ajax call which I am using Jquery,

Code:

function ajax_request() {

  $('#studies').html('<p>loading</p>');

  $('#studies').load("external.html");

  $("#contents").fadeIn(700);

}

I can load the external.html successfully, but I am not able to fade in the div with the id of 'contents' because it is inside the external.html

How do I get around to it?

Many thanks,
Lau