Jordan's King Abdullah talks boosting US defence ties with senior military officials while in Florida

Jordan's King Abdullah II talked with senior American officials about boosting defence and military ties with Washington while in the US state of Florida on Friday.

King Abdullah spoke separately with US Central Command chief Michael Kurila and Special Operations Command head Richard Clarke as he began a working visit to his key ally, the monarch's official website said.

Also broached in the Tampa talks was global and regional work to combat terror.

It remains unknown if US President Joe Biden is to receive the Jordanian ruler for a White House meeting, The Media Line news agency said on Monday, though the pair discussed violent Israeli security raids against occupied East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque in Ramadan during a telephone call last month.

Jordanian lawmaker and ex-minister Mohammad Al-Momani told the outlet King Abdullah's trip will "no doubt focus on the need for quiet in the holy city of Jerusalem and that all efforts be made to ensure the historic rights of the city according to international law".

He added that talks with US officials during the visit will mostly be concerned with these issues.

Palestinians consider Israel's repeated attacks against Al-Aqsa, the most recent of which occurred on Thursday, to be a provocation and part of a wider effort to transform the third-holiest site in Islam into a Jewish place of worship, in breach of the longstanding status-quo agreement there.

The US and other Western countries see Jordan as a bastion of stability in a tense Middle East.

Neighbouring Syria continues to be gripped by its brutal regime and ongoing war, while Lebanon struggles with an economic meltdown which has seen the poverty rate skyrocket to 78 percent, according to the United Nations.