Jordan king sees Mideast peril without peace deal

WASHINGTON, Sep 8 (Reuters) The world will be ''doomed'' to years of violence in the Middle East if there is no major effort by 2007 to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Jordan's King Abdullah warned in an interview.

''I believe the Lebanese war dramatically opened all our eyes to the fact that if we don't solve the Palestinian issue, the future looks pretty bleak for the Middle East,'' the monarch yesterday told Time magazine.

Describing himself as ''one of the most optimistic people you'll come across,'' the king said for the first time he was becoming pessimistic about the region.

Without urgent diplomatic efforts to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians, ''I don't think there will ever be a Palestinian state,'' said Abdullah, whose country is a US ally and signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.

''By 2007, if we don't see something that reassures all of us -- the international community, the Israelis, the Arabs and the Palestinians -- then I think we are doomed to another decade or decades of violence between Israelis and Arabs, which affects everybody,'' the king said.

''There needs to be some sort of Palestinian integral, geographic state, today and not tomorrow,'' he said.

Abdullah expressed disappointment that people around the world ''in a way just don't care anymore.'' He added that moderates pushing for a peaceful settlement had been neutralized by the stagnation in Arab-Israeli negotiations.

''I don't think people are taking us seriously,'' he said. ''A lot of the moderate countries are feeling isolated.'' The king also expressed concern the region's troubles could multiply with the crises over Iran and Iraq, Time said.

''I don't think the Middle East could afford another war,'' Abdullah said. ''A war with Iran would sort of open a Pandora's Box and one that I don't think the Middle East would recover from.'' REUTERS PB RK1030