His Majesty King Abdullah II, Thursday opened talks with French President Jacques Chirac on bilateral relations and the situation in Palestinian areas and Iraq.



The two leaders affirmed their support to efforts designed to reinvigorate the peace process and put an end to the cycle of violence in the Palestinian areas.



King Abdullah, who arrived in Paris earlier on the day, in the course of a European tour which also took him to German and Britain to drum up international support to the peace process, stressed the necessity to keep this process alive and underlined the important role of France an the EU to back these efforts.



The talks, attended by the delegation accompanying King Abdullah and senior French officials touched upon " the Greater Middle East Initiative" that includes proposals for reform in the Middle East. King Abdullah and President Chirac asserted that reform should start from inside and that every country has its own situation and unique circumstances that should be taken into account. They also said resolving the Palestinian issue should be in the heart of any program for reform in the region.



President Chirac voiced his support to King Abdullah's vision that the private sector and the civil society should have a role in the ongoing process of reform as well as on relations between France and Jordan.



He also affirmed France's assistance to Jordan through giving preference to Jordan's exports to France and the EU countries.



The two sides agreed to further strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries through opening a branch office to the French Agency for Development in Amman to support Jordanian economic projects.



To that end, an agreement will be signed in Amman next week to regulate the Agency's activities in Jordan.