Bush and Jordan’s King Meet on Mideast

WASHINGTON — President Bush and King Abdullah of Jordan met privately for breakfast on Wednesday morning, as the White House tries to resuscitate the ailing Middle East peace talks before Mr. Bush leaves for Israel next month.

The breakfast session was brief, lasting less than an hour, and the White House would not release details.

But the Jordanian Embassy said afterward that the king told Mr. Bush that negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis “should be based on clear grounds and fixed time frames.” That language closely echoes the position of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who met both King Abdullah and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday and is to see Mr. Bush at the White House on Thursday.

The flurry of meetings comes as the peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians are at an especially fragile phase. American and Israeli officials are negotiating with moderate Palestinian leaders on steps to ease an Israeli crackdown on Gaza, while Egypt is negotiating with the militant Hamas movement to try to stop the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel.

Mr. Bush is scheduled to go to the region next month to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel. Although he will travel to Egypt and Saudi Arabia in addition to Israel, there are no plans for him to meet Palestinian leaders on the trip — an omission that may have prompted the White House to invite Mr. Abbas this week.

“There’s been some pressure within the Arab world, suggesting that he shouldn’t go to Israel at this point if there are not indicators that he will be dealing with the Palestinians as well,” said Dennis Ross, who worked as a Middle East envoy under President Bill Clinton and Mr. Bush’s father. This week’s meetings, Mr. Ross said, are Mr. Bush’s way of “showing he is engaging with both sides.”

After years of shying away from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Bush has become much more involved. In November, the White House sponsored a conference in Annapolis, Md., where Mr. Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel committed themselves to the ambitious goal of negotiating a peace treaty by the end of this year.

Mr. Bush went to the region in January, but the trip did not produce much progress. The two sides remain far apart on four core issues: the final borders of a Palestinian state, as well as the future of Jerusalem, the disputed Israeli settlements and Palestinian refugees.

Mr. Abbas is in Washington looking for help from the United States in resolving those issues. But Aaron David Miller, who spent two decades as a Middle East negotiator and has written a book, “The Much Too Promised Land,” about his experiences, said he did not expect this week’s White House meetings to produce much.

“The main event in the Arab-Israeli peace process is not right now an American story,” Mr. Miller said. “It is a story about two politicians, Abbas and Olmert, who for their own reasons may see an interest in reaching an agreement. And it’s a story about torturous negotiations between Israel and Hamas, both of whom understand that it may be in their own interest right now for a temporary standoff.”

Meanwhile, the tiff between the administration and former President Jimmy Carter over his recent talks with Hamas continued Wednesday. On Tuesday, Secretary Rice complained openly about Mr. Carter’s efforts, saying the administration had “counseled him against going to the region, and particularly against having contacts with Hamas.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Carter issued a statement in which he said that at no time did any United States official counsel him against going to the Middle East.

“President Carter has the greatest respect for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and believes her to be a truthful person,” the statement said. “However, perhaps inadvertently, she is continuing to make a statement that is not true.”