Jordan king calls to revive Mideast peace talks

Jordan urged the Bush administration on Monday to help revive the stalled Middle East peace process as US Vice President Dick Cheney ended a regional tour.

Cheney headed home from the Red Sea resort of Aqaba after talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II, AFP reported. "We know there's a lot of challenges there," the king said of the peace process, asking Cheney to help move it out of its "stagnation."

We must "give hope a chance," he said during the one-hour meeting.

Asked whether settling the Middle East peace process was key to solving Iraq and Iran, Cheney told Fox News television: "I think we have to address all of the problems, and we don't have the luxury of ignoring any of them."

A palace statement said the king told Cheney that an Arab peace initiative endorsed in March represents "an opportunity to advance peace and end the Arab-Israeli conflict." "Time is not on anyone's side," said the king, calling for a "timeframe to establish tangible results on the ground."

A palace official told AFP the meeting with Cheney focused essentially on the situation in Iraq and reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.