Mr. Erekat said by telephone on Sunday that the demand for a settlement freeze remained and that he was going to the meeting out of respect for the efforts of King Abdullah II of Jordan. He said he hoped that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel would “see the significance of Jordan’s role and stop settlements to give the king the chance he deserves.”

He added, “The king understands the complexities and dangers and has decided to step in.”

A spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu, Mark Regev, said the Israelis had been calling for direct talks without preconditions for three years. But he said that there would be no new freeze on settlements.

The quartet has been trying to bring the Palestinians and Israelis back to direct talks by asking each to submit proposals on borders and security. The Palestinians have submitted their ideas but the Israelis say that if the goal is direct talks, the proposals should be given to the Palestinians once they meet.

King Abdullah has been taking an unusually active role in the Israeli-Palestinian issue in recent months. In November, he made a rare visit to the West Bank city of Ramallah to see Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. A week later, he invited President Shimon Peres of Israel to Amman, the Jordanian capital, for a meeting.

The higher profile the king has taken is partly an effort to fill a vacuum left by the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in February. Mr. Mubarak, who was a central backer of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority and had good relations with Israel, often acted as a mediator to spur the two sides to improve their relations.