Amman - Jordan's King Abdullah II held his second meeting in less than a week on Wednesday with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to review the outcome of efforts exerted so far to try to stop further Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

The meeting at the Red Sea resort of Aqaba took place a few hours before the arrival of the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was due to hold separate talks with the two Arab leaders in the course of a regional tour.

The monarch and Abbas discussed "the steps that should be taken to stop the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and end the sufferings of the Palestinian people as soon as possible," a royal court statement said.

"They also reviewed the outcome of Arab and international efforts being made to come up with an effective move to ensure a cessation of the aggression," it added.

Halting the Israeli offensive was also the crux of a telephone discussion on Wednesday between King Abdullah and the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

"The monarch stressed the need for an immediate halt to the aggression and launching a move for addressing the crisis within a political framework that ends the sufferings of the Palestinian people and ensures the resumption of talks for resolving the conflict on the basis of the two-state solution," the royal court said. (dpa)