Amman - About 7,000 employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees in Jordan went on strike Monday to press for salary increases, UNRWA officials said.

The striking personnel, who include about 4,000 teachers, are urging UNRWA Commissioner, General Karen AbuZayd, to intervene with donor countries to ensure the availability of finances that permit raising salaries of employees to enable them cope with the soaring inflation rate.

UNRWA spokesman in Jordan Saqr Matar said the agency granted three increments to its Jordanian employees since June 2007 in a bid to match those decided by the government for the country's civil servants.

"The agency's policies and financial standing do not allow further salary increases for the time being. Furthermore, the demand for increases cannot be justified at this juncture," he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"We hope that all such things will be resolved through dialogue rather than strikes," Matar said.

Striking employees said that they planned to resume work on Tuesday in order to enable about 1.8 million refugees in Jordan to receive the necessary services.

However, they said that they planned "an open strike" on April 14 if their demands were not met.

A steep hike of fuel prices and other commodities earlier this year threatened to raise Jordan's inflation rate to a double-digit figure in 2008, economists said. (dpa)