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Israeli PM pays unscheduled visit to Jordan for peace talks

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AMMAN, April 30 (RIA Novosti) -Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held talks with the Jordanian king on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process during an unexpected visit to Jordan on Wednesday.

"The two leaders discussed the peace process and ways to make progress towards the objectives set at the Annapolis conference," Olmert's office said in a statement after the meeting.

Olmert's visit to Jordan, his second this year, comes a week after Abdullah paid an official visit to the White House for talks with U.S. President George Bush. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is also arriving in Jordan on Saturday.

Israel and the Palestinian National Authority resumed peace talks at a U.S.-sponsored Middle East summit in Annapolis last year after a seven-year hiatus. The sides pledged to do everything possible to draft a peace settlement by the end of 2008, as well as to come to an agreement on the form of a future independent Palestinian state.

During the two-hour meeting, King Abdullah II urged Olmert to achieve a breakthrough in the Middle East peace process by the end of 2008, the Jordanian news agency said.

The sides also held talks on "bilateral relations and the peace process and Jordanian support for the process."

Peace talks between Israeli and Palestine came to a temporary halt last month following a devastating Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, which killed 120 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced he would resume talks following a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the end of March.

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