Jordan king sees 'last opportunity' for Mideast peace

JERUSALEM, Feb 23 (Reuters) Jordan's King Abdullah said today there was little time left to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that this may be ''the last opportunity for peace''.

''We find ourselves at this very important crossroads... What I do feel really is the last opportunity for peace for all of us,'' Abdullah told Israel's Channel 2 television in excerpts from an interview to be broadcast in full tomorrow.

''The opportunities that we have are diminishing and ... I believe that the way the dynamics are changing is that we will find ourselves in a very short period of time with never being able to push the two-state solution,'' he added.

U S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held a three-way meeting on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah faction signed a power-sharing pact with the Islamist Hamas group in Mecca, Saudi Arabia earlier this month.

Rice's meeting appeared to do little to advance long-stalled peacemaking efforts and was overshadowed by a threatened U.S.

and Israeli boycott of the unity government, which has yet to be formed.

Although Olmert said he would maintain contacts with Abbas, the Israeli leader played down the chances of resuming serious peace talks.

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