Amman, Jan 15 (DPA) Jordan's King Abdullah II urged visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to "push vigorously towards re-launching negotiations" between Palestine and Israel, adding that lack of progress in the peace process "will only fuel violence" in the region.
"The passage of time without achieving real and virtual progress based on specific steps to implement the road map in the near future will only expand the cycle of violence," a royal court statement quoted the monarch as saying Sunday.
Rice, who is on a regional tour, flew in earlier Sunday from Ramallah where she held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the heels of similar discussions with Israeli leaders.
King Abdullah also urged the US to extend assistance to Abbas, saying such a step "will help create a strong Palestinian partner capable of making progress in the peace process".
In an implicit rejection of a Palestinian state with interim borders as reportedly proposed by Rice, King Abdullah said that the purported Palestinian state should "enjoy full sovereignty" and be established in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions and the Pan-Arab peace initiative.
The Arab peace blueprint, which was adopted by the Arab summit in Beirut in 2002, envisages an Israeli pull back to the June 4, 1967 borders, which would form the borders between the Palestinian state and Israel.
Alluding to President George W. Bush's new strategy on Iraq, the Jordanian leader warned that any political process that failed to involve all components of the Iraqi people including the Sunni community "will be doomed to failure and will only lead to more violence".
After Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Rice is scheduled to visit Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.