Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has arrived in Washington for an official visit, during which he will discuss peace issues with President George W. Bush.

On Wednesday, President Bush held a private breakfast with Jordan’s King Abdullah, who has always appreciated the Bush administration’s effort to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, before the end of the president’s term at the beginning of the next year.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said that Israel and the Palestinian Authority agreed last year to try and reach a compromise in 2008 and international pressure is necessary for the two countries to reach their goals.

President Abbas is expected to ask President Bush on Thursday to act in the name of his country and urge Israel to stop Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank and ease checkpoints that prevent Palestinian mobility.

"We want a clear and forceful intervention by the quartet so the two sides implement their obligations under the road map," Maliki said during a speech to a Madrid political forum, as Reuters reports on its website.

The Associated Press informs that the Bush administration is sending a senior State Department official to run the Midlle East office of former British prime Minister Tony Blair as part of the effort to support the Palestinian president. The deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, Robert Danin will take up the position next week.

President Abbas is also due to meet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday. He also met with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow not long ago, in order to discuss about a peace conference that would be hosted by the Kremlin.