The road to peace and stability in the Middle East has always run through Jerusalem:

Jordan's king urges US peace push

King Abdullah of Jordan has told the US Congress that America must throw its weight behind an urgent drive to make peace in the Middle East.
Addressing representatives and senators in Washington, the king said the status quo could not be allowed to continue.

It "is pulling the region and the world towards greater danger... the cycle of crisis is spinning faster," he warned.

The king suggested a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was more urgent than the conflict in Iraq.

While Iraq was a source of concern, "the wellspring of regional division, the source of resentment and frustration... is the denial of justice and peace in Palestine".

"Sixty years of Palestinian dispossession, 40 years of occupation... have left a bitter legacy of disappointment and despair," he said.

He challenged the US to create a different legacy, tying America's moral credibility and its war on terror to a resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli crisis, says the BBC's Jane Little in Washington.

He said there was now a "rare and historic moment of opportunity".

He called for support for a Saudi peace plan drawn up in 2002, which offered collective Arab recognition of Israel in return for a viable Palestinian state.

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