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Jordan’s King Abdullah II was on Monday holding talks in Ramallah with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on his first visit to the West Bank in more than a decade.

The rare visit came just days ahead of a key summit between the rival Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas, which are looking to cement a stalled unity deal that has drawn fierce opposition from Israel and Washington.

It was the first time the monarch has visited the West Bank’s political capital since before Abbas took over as president in January 2005, and comes just days before the Palestinian leader heads to Cairo to meet exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal.

After his royal helicopter touched down inside the Muqataa presidential compound, Abdullah was greeted by senior members of the Palestinian leadership on what was his first visit to Ramallah since August 2000.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas (L) and Jordanian King Abdullah II (C) review the

But officials have said little about the reasons behind the high-level visit, which Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh described as “historic.”

Speaking to reporters at a joint press conference with his Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Malki, Judeh expressed support for both the Palestinians’ UN membership bid and for moves to cement a unity deal between Hamas and Fatah.

“The king has always said that strength comes from unity of the Palestinian front,” he said.

“Jordan’s goal is to support the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian cause and we will make every effort for the Palestinian cause and the unity of the Palestinian front.”

Malki said that reconciliation between the two Palestinian national movements was of the greatest importance.

“For us there is no greater interest than the reconciliation and the end of the division,” he said.

On the Palestinian side, a top adviser to Abbas played up the timing of the visit.

“The king’s visit and meeting with president Abbas at this time is very important,” Nimr Hammad told AFP.

“They will discuss all the political developments between us and the international community in order reach a common Palestinian-Jordanian understanding on the issues.”

Talks were expected to touch on the Palestinian bid to secure full state membership at the United Nations, and on the upcoming Hamas-Fatah meeting in Cairo — both of which have met with strong US and Israeli opposition.

Under terms of their unity deal, Fatah and Hamas were to piece together an interim government of politically unaffiliated technocrats who would prepare for presidential and legislative elections within a year.

Abbas and Abdullah were to hold a joint press conference before the Jordanian monarch returns to Amman in the early afternoon, officials said.

Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, has made little secret of its support for the UN bid and the king has expressed frustration over the repeated failure to advance the peace process.

Speaking to AFP late on Sunday, a senior Palestinian official said the timing of the visit was an important show of support for Abbas who is under increasing pressure to drop the UN bid and scrap attempts to reconcile with Hamas.

Under terms of their unity deal, Fatah and Hamas were to piece together an interim government of politically unaffiliated technocrats who would prepare for presidential and legislative elections within a year.

But the caretaker government was never formed, with the two sides bickering over its composition and over who would take up the role of premier.

However, after a series of secret talks in Cairo, the two sides appear to have reached some form of agreement, Palestinian officials say, which is likely to be made public after they meet in the Egyptian capital later this week.

Abdullah paid his first visit to the Palestinian territories in May 1999 just months after being crowned king, meeting the late leader Yasser Arafat in Gaza. A year later, in August 2000, he met Arafat again, that time in Ramallah.

A senior Israeli official, who said they were not informed of Abdullah’s plans, welcomed the West Bank visit.

“We have repeatedly called in the past for Arab leaders to travel to Ramallah in order to strengthen the peace process. Unfortunately, almost none of them have come,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity.