Washington ? King Abdullah II of Jordan blessed warmly President Bush’s attempt to divide the world’s nations into good and evil. “I endorse tremendously that view and that position,” the Arab monarch said Friday.

Iraq, Jordan’s larger and far more powerful neighbor, was bracketed by Bush into an “axis of evil” with Iran and North Korea. Bush said ominously while greeting Abdullah at the White House that “all options are on the table on how to make our allies more secure.”

Later, in a meeting with Republican members of Congress at a resort in West Virginia, Bush resumed his fiery rhetoric.

“We’ve got nations on notice,” he said. “Of course, I hope they change their behavior on their own … What are the consequences? They will find out in due course if they can’t get their house in order.”

Among those consequences, Bush said, was the likelihood of U.S. action.

“The mighty United States will do what it takes to defend our security,” he said.

Abdullah, heaping praise on Bush as they sat together in the Oval Office, said, “It’s very obvious that there are those that are on the side of good, those that are on the side of bad, and there’s some … that haven’t made up their mind.”

Abdullah’s support of Bush’s designation of Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an “axis of evil” is a significant step for the king.

Tiny Jordan, many of its 4.8 million people mired in poverty and a majority of them Palestinians, sits alongside Iraq in the restive Middle East.

Jordan is generally inclined to be careful about irritating its larger neighbor.