Jordan carried Palestinian ideas to Washington and proposal for dialogue between Bush, Khatami

The Jordanian King Abdullah II starts today a visit to the USA where he is expected to raise tomorrow with the US President George W. Bush the issue of making dialogue at the summit level between Tehran and Washington, in addition to debating certain Palestinian ideas on reviving negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Jordanian king while on his way to Washington, stopped in London for a while where he had met with the British prime minister Tony Blair. A statement issued by Blair's office said that the talks between the officials covered Iraq and the Middle East peace process.

An official in the Jordanian Royal court said that "the visit this time to the USA (the second in 10 weeks) will actually concentrate on peace in the Middle East and the mechanism to implementing the Roadmap." The Jordanian king is accompanied by the director of the general intelligence, royal court minister, and the foreign minister.

Jordanian officials said that the king will also raise in Washington the Iranian issue. They added that the king will notify Bush that he had felt during his visit to Tehran in September that there is an Iranian readiness to maintain direct dialogue between Bush and the Iranian President Muhammad Khatami, and that the king will also discuss with the American officials economic issues and means of increasing the American economic aid to Jordan.