Jordan's King Abdullah II said Wednesday it was time for Arab and Muslim countries to help the United States do "the heavy lifting" needed to forge peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

"Too many times in the past, America has been asked to do all the heavy-lifting," the king said as he met with Democratic US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi one day after delivering the same message at the White House.

"I hope that you will see in 2009 a group of Arab and Muslim countries doing as much as we can to help the United States and allies in the peace process and also deal with a lot of regional challenges that we have," he told Pelosi.

The speaker, US President Barack Obama's top ally in the House of Representatives, warmly welcomed the king and underlined "how much we value his words of wisdom."

"We've all benefited from the insights he has given us about the region. We?re very pleased to work closely in partnership with Jordan and with His Majesty in terms of a Middle East peace and fighting terrorism," she said.