Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said Wednesday that Israel's refusal of the two-state solution would expose it to the world as an "apartheid" country.

"His Majesty the king (Abdullah II) has made it clear that if we fail to achieve the two-state solution, then the alternative will be that the world will have eventually to view Israel as a state that practices racial policies," Judeh said.

The foreign minister was testifying before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the upper house of parliament on the latest developments of the deadlocked direct peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel, the official Petra news agency said.

Judeh said that the recent recognition of the Palestinian state by Latin American countries "will put pressure on Israel and remind it that the world will not accept its unilateral actions" in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

He expected "more states" to follow in the steps of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay in recognizing a Palestinian state.

Judeh warned that the failure to come up with a solution for the Palestine question in accordance with the Arab peace initiative "will have dire consequences in terms of escalating tension and instability."

The Arab peace initiative offers Israel full recognition by all Arab states if it pulls out from all Arab territories it occupied during the Six-Day War in 1967, including East Jerusalem.