Jordan's King Meets Congress

King Abdullah of Jordan pressed his case Wednesday for additional financial aid in meetings with congressional leaders.

The young Arab monarch talked with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., after seeing Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

At a lunch with members of the House International Relations Committee held by Chairman Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., Queen Rania, his Palestinian-born wife, accompanied Abdullah.

It was one of the couple's first international appearances together since the end of the three-month official period of mourning for Abdullah's father, King Hussein, who died of cancer Feb. 7.

Abdullah is on a six-nation Western tour to seek debt forgiveness and increased support for the throne he inherited. He has promised to carry on his father's moderate policies, maintain warm ties with the United States and protect the 1994 peace agreement with Israel.

Abdullah was urging lawmakers to approve the additional $100 million the Clinton administration has requested for Jordan in 1999 and $200 million more over the next two years. The money would be on top of the $200 million the United States is already providing.

President Clinton, who met with Abdullah Tuesday, already has forgiven Jordan's $700 million U.S. debt and asked leading industrialized nations to take similar steps. "I hope that Jordan can receive some relief on its debt problem from other countries," Mr. Clinton said. "The United States has already done about all we can on that. We've done quite a bit."

At a news conference, Abdullah said Jordan owes $7 billion to the industrialized nations, which will join with the United States in June at an economic summit meeting in Cologne, Germany.

He said $3 billion in relief was essential "to give us a fighting chance to get on our feet" and go on with a process of placing more of the country's resources in private hands. "We need to be strong economically to support peacemaking between Israel and the Arabs," Abdullah said.

On Tuesday, the king said "we're very, very optimistic" about the Mideast peace process after the election of Ehud Barak as Israel's prime minister.

The peace treaty Hussein signed with Israel in 1994 raised expectations of an economic boom in Jordan. It did not develop. At the same time, Jordan cut its trade with Iraq dramatically and is looking westward for economic opportunities.