Jordan King urges China to play bigger Mid East role

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's rising influence means it is bound to play a growing diplomatic role in the Middle East, Jordan's King Abdullah said on Tuesday, encouraging Beijing to foster peace between Israel and Palestinians.

"We are hopeful that a stronger Chinese role will be partaking in our region because you are always considered an honest broker and are very well-respected in our part of the world," King Abdullah told President Hu Jintao as they sat down for discussions.

Israeli and Palestinian officials are preparing for a U.S.-sponsored peace conference later this year, and King Abdullah -- among the regional leaders pressing for concrete progress at the meeting -- said China could help foster progress.

"As a permanent member of the United Nations (Security Council) and a country that has good relations with all parties in our region, China's role is, I believe, destined to increase in the coming period," he said in a speech at Peking University.

King Abdullah's call came during a week that is highlighting China's cautious, but growing, role in the troubled Middle East.

On the same day that the Jordanian leader met senior Chinese officials, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was in Beijing to lobby for more stringent sanctions against Iran's nuclear program.

The Middle East, including Iran, supplies China with about half its crude imports. That figure will rise to about 70 percent by 2015, according to the International Energy Agency.

King Abdullah and Hu also oversaw the signing of several agreements between their countries, including one on nuclear energy cooperation and bilateral investment. Officials did not disclose details of the deals.