AMMAN (AFP) - Jordan will only return its ambassador to neighboring Israel if the move would help advance the Arab-Israeli peace process, Foreign Minister Hani Mulki told reporters.

"We will not be sending the ambassador as a decor of a relation," Mulki said Thursday. "We will be sending him back as part of a process in which we see that he is instrumental in pushing the peace process ahead."

Both Egypt and Jordan withdrew their ambassadors from Tel Aviv shortly after the start of the Palestinian intifada in September 2000 in protest at Israel´s attempts to quell the uprising.

But Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he believed next week´s Middle East summit in Sharm el-Sheikh will be the cue for Egypt and Jordan -- the only two Arab countries to have peace treaties with their Jewish neighbours -- to upgrade diplomatic ties by returning their ambassadors to Tel Aviv.

Mulki insisted that the return of Jordan´s ambassador to Tel Aviv was pegged "to the need to help make progress in the peace process on the Palestinian and other tracks".

Egypt will host February 8 a landmark summit between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (and Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas which will be also attended by Jordan´s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. (Copyright © 2005 Agence France Presse. 02/03/05)