Amman  - At least 10 Jordanian lawmakers have signed a memorandum urging the government not to send an ambassador to Iraq, parliamentary sources said Monday.

The signatories, mostly pro-government deputies, cited several reasons for the move, including the failure of the Iraqi government to "recognize" more than 500,000 Iraqis who fled to Jordan after the US-led invasion in 2003.

The lawmakers said Iraqi refugees in Jordan represented a big burden on the country's economy.

They also cited the continued detention of Jordanian citizens by US and Iraqi troops, the blocking of imports from Jordan and the failure of the Iraqi government to pay more than 1.5 billion dollars in debts to Jordan.

During a visit to Jordan by Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi at the end of May, the Amman government unveiled plans to name an envoy to lead the country's diplomatic mission in Baghdad.

Local press criticized the step, saying it was taken under US pressure.

Minister of State for Information Affairs and Communication Nasser Judeh, who made the announcement, did not say when the new Jordanian ambassador to Iraq would be named, but Iraqi sources expected the name of the diplomat would be announced when Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visits Jordan later this week.

The Jordanian embassy in Baghdad was the scene of a fatal bombing in August 2003 that was blamed on Jordanian terrorist Abu Mussab al- Zarqawi, who was killed in a US airstrike inside Iraq in June 2006. (dpa)