"Efforts for having serious and effective peace talks should continue, based on a two-state solution, which is the only way to achieve regional stability and security," the statement quoted the king as telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the telephone.

"The deadlocked peace process threatens the entire region."

The king, whose country signed a 1994 peace treaty with Israel, said "practical steps are needed to remove obstacles facing the peace process," the statement said.

Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the first for nearly two years, began in Washington on September 2 but quickly stalled when a 10-month Israeli settlements freeze expired on September 26.

The Palestinians refused to return to talks until all settlement building stopped in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem.

The telephone call came after controversial hard-right Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told AFP on Tuesday that "at least a decade" would be needed to reach a peace accord with the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh will visit the Palestinian territories on Thursday for talks on the peace process, an official statement said.

earlier related report
Israeli MPs vote to probe rights group
Jerusalem (AFP) Jan 5, 2011 - Israeli MPs on Wednesday voted in favour of a parliamentary inquiry into the funding of local rights groups allegedly helping to build war crimes cases abroad against Israeli military personnel.

The 41-15 vote in the 120-seat assembly brought a storm of protest from local rights groups, with The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PICATI) describing such an investigation as "authoritarian, immoral and illegitimate."

The motion, brought by the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, will now go to parliament's House Committee for a debate on the scope and terms of such an inquiry, parliamentary spokesman Giora Pordes told AFP, without saying when.

Israeli military officers, politicians and officials have been targeted overseas by war crimes warrants brought by pro-Palestinian campaign groups, particularly in Britain, until it amended its legislation on universal jurisdiction last month after intense Israeli government lobbying.

Ex-foreign minister Tzipi Livni reportedly cancelled a trip to London in December 2009 last year after a British court issued a warrant for her arrest over Israel's war in Gaza earlier in the year.

The Jewish state also delayed a visit by senior military officers to Britain last January amid fears they could be arrested.

Yisrael Beitenu's website quoted one of its MPs, Fania Kirshenbaum, as saying that Israeli groups who helped build cases against members of the military were weakening Israel's standing in the world.

She named human rights group B'Tselem, soldiers' testimony network Breaking The Silence and checkpoint monitors Machsom Watch as among those she wanted scrutinised.

In the past, critics have accused the rights groups of receiving funding from countries and organisations hostile to Israel.

A joint statement by 15 NGOs, including those mentioned by Kirshenbaum, challenged any inquiry to find fault with their behaviour.

"You wish to investigate? Go ahead and interrogate all of us," it said. "We have nothing to hide."

Although a signatory to the joint statement, PICATI also published its own angry response.

"The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel sees any such investigative committee as authoritarian, immoral and illegitimate and mourns the slow but sure death of democratic values in Israel," it said.

"No human rights organization has succeeded in harming Israel in the way those Israeli politicians who introduce and support such despotic initiatives damage Israeli society," it said.

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