King Abdullah of Jordan yesterday warned of a conflagration in the Middle East over the next year if the Palestinian-Israeli peace process was not revived.

In an interview with the FT, the king said the biggest risks were an escalation in violence in the occupied Palestinian territories and renewed fighting in Lebanon, both already troubled by rising tensions.

Israeli troops have been on a six-day offensive in the town of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, leaving dozens of Palestinians dead. A Palestinian suicide bomber yesterday blew herself up near Israeli troops in the same town, wounding a soldier.

"There's a nine to 12 month crisis cycle in the Middle East and it is getting shorter and shorter," the king said.

His statements reflect growing concern among some Arab states that lack of movement on the moribund peace process is strengthening radical states and players in the region.

The king said radicals were "feeling emboldened while moderates are in a weak position". Many states in the region, he suggested, were watching the shifts in the balance of power and looking to pick sides.

King Abdullah said there was now an Arab and Muslim group working to push forward the peace process on the basis of a 2002 initiative agreed at an Arab League summit in Beirut. The Arab plan promised Israel normal relations with countries of the region if it withdrew from occupied Arab lands.

Israel rejected the initiative at the time and the US ignored it. Israel's failure to crush Hizbollah during the month-long offensive, however, left the government of Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, weakened and without a clear political strategy, leading some members of the cabinet to speak more positively of the Arab initiative.

The king said a clearer idea of what Israel might be willing to do would only come after Mr Olmert's visit to Washington later this month. "We need to know how far the Israelis will go," the monarch said.