Obama presses for peace on the Middle East

US President Barack Obama said it was "more vital than ever" to seek to revive long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, even as political upheaval convulses much of the broader Middle East.

Speaking after talks with Jordan's King Abdullah at the start of a week of intense diplomacy, Obama pledged to keep pressing for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, despite his failure so far to break the impasse.

But Obama, who wants to reconnect with an Arab world showing signs of frustration with his approach to the restive region, offered no new ideas for advancing the peace process.

The president plans to deliver a major policy speech on the "Arab spring" meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and address an influential pro-Israel lobbying group.

With the Jordanian monarch sitting at his side in the Oval Office, Obama suggested that unrest sweeping the Middle East offered a chance for Israel and the Palestinians to seek progress toward resolving their own decades-old dispute.

"Despite the many changes - or perhaps because of the many changes that have taken place in the region - it's more vital than ever that both Israelis and Palestinians find a way to ... begin negotiating a process whereby they can create two states living side by side in peace and security," he told reporters.

Obama is struggling to counter Arab perceptions of an uneven US response to a wave of popular uprisings and disarray in his Israeli-Palestinian peace strategy. He hopes to use the US killing of Osama bin Laden, which for now has boosted his standing at home and abroad, as a chance to reach out to a large Arab audience.