Jordan next on Rice's Mideast peace mission

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Jordan today for talks that the Jordanian government hopes will culminate in renewed American efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Rice opened talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah II behind closed doors shortly after arrival at the monarch’s residence, known as Beit al-Urdun, or House of Jordan.

A Jordanian official said before the talks opened that the king wants to hear from Rice about US ideas for reviving the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

“Obviously, the Palestinian issue is the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict and lies at the centre of regional problems and we want to see renewed American efforts to resolving this conflict,” said the official.

Abdullah urged US President George W Bush to make greater efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks when he received a call from the White House two days ago.

A royal palace statement said Abdullah encouraged his US ally to intensify his effort to relaunch the peace process.

The king said that a solution must see a Palestinian state created on the basis on an Arab initiative unveiled at an Arab summit in Lebanon in 2002. The proposal calls for Israel to withdraw from all territory occupied since the 1967 Mideast war in return for full recognition by Arab countries.

On a week-long tour of the region, Rice arrived in Jordan from the West Bank, where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told her that he opposed the establishment of a provisional Palestinian state in temporary borders, a key part of the US-backed “road map” peace plan.

Palestinian officials in recent weeks have grown increasingly wary of the idea, which was also proposed by Israel’s foreign minister, fearing they will be stuck indefinitely with a truncated state.