AMMAN, 9 June 2006 — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Jordan’s King Abdallah yesterday that he would do his utmost to restart peace talks with the Palestinians amid concern that chaos in Palestinian areas could destabilize the kingdom.

Olmert said he would meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to “exhaust progress” on the road map but that Israel would seek other solutions unless the Palestinians meet international demands to end all violence.

“I told his Majesty that Israel is committed to the road map and to advancing the bilateral track with the Palestinians, Israel will invest all efforts in order to advance this avenue,” Olmert said at a joint news conference in Amman.

“Political stalemate in the Middle East is bad for Israel, is bad for the Palestinians and is bad for the region. It is essential to avoid stagnation.”

Abdallah urged Olmert to revive peace talks.

“A negotiated settlement that leads to a viable and contiguous independent Palestinian state, on Palestinian territory will help establish a just, comprehensive Middle East peace that provides security and stability to every Arab and Israeli man, woman and child,” Abdallah told the conference.

Olmert said Israel’s ties with Jordan were “fundamental” and it would do everything to strengthen them, promising to facilitate Jordanian aid to the Palestinians and support their efforts to equip and train Palestinian security forces under presidential command.

Meanwhile, the prosecutor of Jordan’s State Security Court (SSC) charged 12 members of two suspected terror rings, including a Saudi citizen, with plotting to carry out attacks inside Jordan and against US troops in Iraq, judicial sources said yesterday.

The first cell included 7 members-five Iraqis, a Saudi and a Libyan. They were accused of planning acts of terrorism inside Jordan against Americans and Israelis who frequented Dead Sea hotels and against Queen Alia International Airport, the sources added.

Three of the defendants, including Saudi national Turki Nasser are still at large, while the other four were arrested in February this year. The SSC prosecutor also charged the five members of another network with undermining Jordan’s relations with another country as well as recruiting men to fight US troops in Iraq.

— with input from agencies