U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday called Jordanian King Abdullah II on the recently-concluded Israeli-Palestinian talks on the Middle East peace process held in his country, the White House said in a brief statement.

The White House said that Obama congratulated the king on " Jordan's role in convening the meetings" between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators on Tuesday in Amman, the capital of Jordan.

The face-to-face meeting between the two parties is considered to be the first such kind of talks between them in more than one year and a half.

However, the Jordan talks, although being described as face-to- face, are not seen as the revival of direct negotiations aimed at reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

The U. S. State Department said on Thursday that the Palestinians and the Israelis will start a fresh round of direct talks in Amman next Monday.

"The two leaders expressed their shared goal of achieving a comprehensive and lasting peace in the region and promised to stay in touch in the coming weeks on this and other issues of mutual concern," said the White House.

Under U.S. brokering, the Israelis and Palestinians resumed direct negotiations in Sept. 2010 in Washington. But the talks quickly collapsed because Israel refused to renew its moratorium on the West Bank settlement construction.

The Quartet, which groups the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, has been pressing the Israelis and the Palestinians to resume direct negotiations over a two-state solution.

The group wants the two parties to present comprehensive proposals before Jan. 26 and reach an overall agreement by the end of 2012.