Jordan's King Abdullah II on Tuesday urged Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to endorse an Arab peace plan as the two leaders held rare talks aimed at kick-starting Middle East peace efforts.
It was the first meeting between Olmert and an Arab leader since Arab states revived a blueprint offering Israel normal ties if it withdraws from all land conquered in the 1967 Middle East war.
Olmert, who met Abdullah in the Red Sea resort of Aqaba after they attended a gathering of Nobel laureates in the ancient city of Petra, said he was ready to meet Arab leaders to discuss the initiative - but without conditions.
"We would like Israel to commit to this initiative," the king said during the one-hour meeting, their first since December. "Time is not on Israel's side nor on the Palestinians' side."
Israelis and Palestinians "should agree on a specific time-frame to implement the (Arab) initiative ... and engage in negotiations to solve all pending issues," the king said in a statement. Efforts to jumpstart the peace process have been clouded by deadly Palestinian factional fighting and a deep political crisis in Israel, where Olmert faces calls to resign over last year's Lebanon war and a string of corruption scandals.
The Jordanian monarch asked Olmert to re-engage in peace talks with moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and to stop Jewish settlement expansion in Jerusalem reported by the Israeli press. He also insisted that Israel release Palestinian funds in order to prove its true desire for peace and support for the Palestinian Authority led by Abbas.
Despite the apparent peace overtures, around 80 demonstrators torched Israeli and US flags in Amman to protest Olmert's visit at a rally organised by the Islamist-dominated professional trade unions, an AFP correspondent said.
In Petra, Olmert told Nobel laureates he was ready for talks with Arab leaders on the peace initiative - which also calls for the creation of a Palestinian state and the return of refugees.
He said he would continue to meet Abbas but blamed Palestinian factions that refuse to recognise Israel for the failure to achieve any breakthrough, apparently referring to Hamas, the main partner in the fragile two-month-old Palestinian unity government.
Israel initially rejected the Saudi-drafted peace plan when it was first floated in 2002 but Olmert has since cautiously welcomed parts of the initiative although Israel wants amendments to the refugee issue.
"I invite these 22 leaders of the Arab nation that are ready to make that kind of peace with Israel to come, whenever they want, to sit down with us and start to talk and present their ideas," Olmert said in Petra.
"If you want to talk to us about it, we are ready to sit down and listen to you very carefully. We will have, of course, comments about it. We will exchange views." Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina, who was present at the Petra conference, accused the Israelis of foot dragging. "The peace process is frozen... nothing is happening but we hope it will happen soon. We are ready for peace negotiations but the Israelis are not ready," he told AFP.
Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin said that Olmert and Abdullah discussed "ways to strengthen Abu Mazen (Abbas) and moderate elements in the Palestinian Authority." Jordan and Egypt, the only two Arab countries to have peace treaties with Israel, have been tasked by the Arab League to promote the peace bid.
But Israeli diplomacy has been on the backburner since a government commission in April found Olmert responsible for major failures in Israel's war on the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah in July and August last year.
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