Bush meets Jordan's king before Palestinian talks

By Matt Spetalnick and Wafa Amr

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush held White House talks with Jordan's King Abdullah on Wednesday as part of a diplomatic flurry this week aimed at shoring up the fragile Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Facing deep skepticism over his chances of securing a peace deal before he leaves office in January, Bush met Abdullah, an important player in regional diplomacy, on the eve of a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Washington.

Abdullah stressed the need for U.S. support for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, telling Bush the talks "should be based on clear grounds and fixed timeframes," the Jordanian Embassy in Washington said in a statement.

Negotiations between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have shown little progress since a U.S.-hosted conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November, where they pledged to try to reach a peace deal by the end of the year.

Bush failed to achieve any breakthroughs during a visit to the region in January. He will travel to Israel again in mid-May to celebrate the Jewish state's 60th anniversary and try to advance peace efforts.

Bush, who once disdained a hands-on role in Middle East peacemaking, seems intent on using the waning months of his presidency to shape a foreign policy legacy that encompasses more than the unpopular war in Iraq.

Many analysts say that if Israelis and Palestinians are to resolve their decades-old differences, it will require direct, sustained presidential engagement. But Bush has made clear he has no intention of adopting what his administration once derided as predecessor Bill Clinton's all-or-nothing approach to peacemaking that failed at the end of his presidency.

RICE MEETS ABBAS

Meanwhile Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Abbas to lay the groundwork for his talks with Bush. She told Abbas she would visit Israel and the Palestinian territories from May 3-4, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters.

Bush hopes to bolster Abbas, who controls only the West bank after Hamas' violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in June.

Abbas wants U.S. pressure on Israel for a framework agreement that would outline the way sensitive final-status issues can be resolved to establish a Palestinian state.

Abbas's aides say there is concern not only that a failure of Bush's peace effort would weaken the Palestinian leader and strengthen Islamist rivals, but that any momentum toward a deal would be lost at the start of a new U.S. administration.

For his part, Olmert, also politically weak at home, has made clear he prefers a vaguer list of "understandings."

Negotiations have been bogged down over Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank and violence in and around Gaza, where Hamas cross-border rocket fire has drawn an Israeli military response.

Jordan's Embassy said Abdullah told Bush Israel should refrain from "measures that would jeopardize negotiations with the Palestinians," and called for an end to Israeli settlement activities, a lifting of the blockade (of Gaza) and (of) restrictions on the movement of Palestinians.