Jordans King Postpones West Bank Visit

Bad weather forced Jordan's King Abdullah to cancel plans to fly to the occupied West Bank.

Bad weather forced Jordan's King Abdullah to cancel plans to fly to the occupied West Bank on Sunday for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Palestinian official said.

"The king's visit today has been postponed because of bad weather conditions and arrangements are being made to hold this meeting in a few days' time," said Abbas's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdainah.

King Abdullah is scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday on the sidelines of a Nobel peace laureates' conference in Petra, Jordan.

The monarch's talks with Israel and the Palestinians were expected to focus on an Arab League peace plan offering Israel normal relations with the Arab world in return for a Palestinian state and full withdrawal from land seized in the 1967 Middle East war.

On Thursday, the foreign ministers of Jordan and Egypt, acting as an Arab League working group, briefed Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on the peace initiative in Cairo.

The working group is expected to send a delegation to Israel in the coming weeks.

Olmert has said he sees positive points in the proposal, although Israel opposes the return of Palestinian refugees to their former homes in what is now the Jewish state. It also wants to retain some major settlement blocs in the West Bank.