Transcript: President Bush and Jordan's King Abdullah II

BUSH: It's my real pleasure to welcome His Majesty back to the Oval Office. 

Your Majesty, every time you come, I really enjoy our conversation. 

His Majesty leads a great country in the midst of a part of the world that is changing, changing for the better. And I want to thank His Majesty for his leadership, his understanding about the need for reform, his strong alliance, his clear vision that the world needs to jointly fight terror.

And really appreciate you coming. Welcome.

ABDULLAH: I'd like to thank the president for welcoming me back in Washington. As always, our discussions have been very fruitful, to try and make the Middle East a better place. We had the chance to discuss the issues of the peace process, how we can move that forward, and obviously our commitment to regional reform. And as always, we've come away with some very good ideas and a decent way of being able to look at the future.

Thank you.

BUSH: We'll answer a couple of questions.

QUESTION: The Lebanese Maronite patriarch you're meeting with tomorrow supports integrating Hezbollah into the political mainstream in his country. Are you willing to consider that kind of role for Hezbollah?

BUSH: Well, first, I look forward to listening to the patriarch. It's going to be a very interesting discussion.

One of the messages I want to say is that my meeting with the patriarch is in no way embracing any religion for Lebanon. It is a way for me to speak to people that believe that Lebanese society ought to be free.

We view Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, and I would hope that Hezbollah would prove that they're not by laying down arms and not threatening peace.

BUSH: One of our concerns the majesty and I discussed is that Hezbollah may try to derail the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. And it's very important that this peace process go forward for the sake of the Palestinians, for the sake of the Israelis and for the sake of all the people in the region. 

But Hezbollah has been declared a terrorist organization by the United States because of terrorist activities in the past. 

QUESTION: Mr. President...