President Hu Jintao and Jordanian King Abdullah II Bin Al-Hussein officiated at the signing of the agreements in Beijing, and agreed to work together to promote the peace process in the Middle East.

China is ready to back the international community, including Jordan, and play a positive role in easing tensions in the Middle East to promote all-round, equitable and lasting peace, Hu said.

"China supports international efforts, including the Arab Peace Initiative, for peace in the Middle East," Hu said.

"We hope the parties involved handle their disputes properly through dialogues and consultations in line with related UN resolutions and the principle of 'land for peace' to seek peaceful coexistence."

A US-proposed international conference on the Middle East will be held next month in Annapolis, the US, to find ways to restore peace in the region.

Jordan joined other Arab countries earlier this year in reaffirming its commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative as a framework for the resumption of peace talks.

The initiative offers to recognize the state of Israel by all Arab countries provided Tel-Aviv withdraws from all Arab territories occupied in the 1967 war, including East Jerusalem.

Jordan considers the meeting an "important opportunity" for resolving the long-standing Palestinian-Israeli conflict and hopes the conference would come up with concrete results.

The crux of the Middle East problem is the conflict between Palestine and Israel, so the priority should be to push for Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. Only then can it's possible to restore peace and achieve peaceful coexistence, Abdullah II said.

"Jordan appreciates and attaches great importance to China's constructive role in the Middle East peace process and hopes it would continue its efforts," he said.

Earlier, in a speech at Peking University, he said Jordanians regard China as an "honest peace broker" in the Middle East.

Abdullah II's four-day state visit to China marked the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. This is his fifth visit to China since he was crowned in 1999.

Talking on bilateral relations, Hu gave a four-point proposal to strengthen China-Jordan ties: deepening political relations, expanding economic and trade cooperation, widening areas of cooperation itself and promoting exchanges in cultural, educational and other fields.

China will import more products from Jordan, make it easier to promote Jordanian products in China, and encourage and support cooperation between the two countries' enterprises in trade, investment, services and logistics.

Abdullah II said Jordan has prioritized developing ties with China. Jordan hopes to improve cooperation with China in trade and energy and see the early opening of direct flights between the two countries.

(China Daily October 31, 2007)