Abbas warns US peace meet could fail

"I don't think that conference will be useful if we go to it without clarifications for a solution and without a declaration of principles within a framework," Abbas said during a visit to Amman, a palace statement said.

Abbas met King Abdullah II in Amman after a fresh round of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

The Amman talks were part of consultations to ensure that the conference "will be successful," Abbas said, noting there were still questions concerning the date of the meeting, attendance and the agenda.

On July 16, US President George W. Bush urged moderate Arab nations to reach out to Israel, shore up the beleaguered Abbas and join an international conference in the fall to jump-start political progress.

Earlier this week Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal also said he expected the conference to fail because it would exclude "key players in the region" and lean "towards Israel's best interest."

Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, is boycotted by Israel, the United States and the European Union as a terror group. It became further isolated after it seized control of the Gaza Strip in June.

The Palestinians want a detailed framework agreement on core issues such as Jerusalem, borders and refugees, while Israel has talked about a more vague declaration of principles.

The Jordanian monarch said he backs the Palestinian position "which calls on Israel to discuss basic and fundamental issues ... to guarantee the success of the international meeting."

After talks with Abbas, the king spoke with Olmert by telephone to discuss Palestinian-Israeli peace efforts, the palace said.

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