WASHINGTON -- Jordan's King Abdullah warned on Monday against U.S. military action aimed at ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, saying that an armed conflict with Iraq added to Israeli-Palestinian tensions would be devastating for the region, Reuters reported.

"With the Israeli-Palestinian crisis going on, with the anger and frustration throughout the Middle East really at levels that people cannot take anymore ... another armed conflict in the region will be too much for people to bear," the king said.

"Let's give dialogue a chance," he told a luncheon sponsored by the Brookings Institution Think Tank. "The Iraqis need to know that international public opinion is very strong against them."

"We, the international community, need to encourage them in that respect but if anybody has any sensitivity to what's going on between the Israelis and the Palestinians and how it's affecting the Arab street -- to add Iraq onto the menu now, I think, would be devastating," Abdullah said.

The king recalled how his father, the late king Hussein, pushed for U.S. dialogue with Iraq before the 1991 Gulf War, and how Jordan become isolated in the process.

Speculation has risen over the past few months that U.S. President George W. Bush might be preparing to launch an assault after he named Iraq, along with Iran and North Korea, as part of an "axis of evil" that threatened world security.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was quoted as saying on Sunday that the United States had no plans to attack Iraq, but in an interview with Nordic papers, he said aggressive efforts should be deployed to bring about a change of regime in Baghdad.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Friday that Iraq was forging ahead with developing chemical, nuclear and biological weapons and the weapons to deliver them.