Amman  - The deficit in Jordan's balance of trade shrank by 40.9 per cent in the first two months of the year, to 629.4 million dinars (889 million dollars) from 1.065 billion dinars in the same period of 2008, according to official figures released Saturday.

Economists attributed the narrowing trade gap mainly to a 21.8 per cent decline in imports, which stood at 1.426 billion dinars in January and February, compared with 1.823 billion dinars in the first two months of 2008.

Amman - The Central Bank of Jordan on Saturday cut basic interest rates by half a percentage point in the third such move since the advent of the global financial crisis in September.

The CBJ trimmed the rediscount rate to 5.25 per cent from 5.75 per cent and the repurchase rate (repo) to 5.00 per cent from 5.50 per cent.

In an attempt to ease the credit squeeze, the CBJ also cut the compulsory reserves deposited with the Central Bank by commercial banks by 1 percentage point, to 7 per cent from 8 per cent.

Amman - Arab stock markets extended gains this week, buoyed by stable oil prices and good results reported by listed firms in the first quarter of the year, financial analysts said on Friday.

However, they believed regional markets would remain "volatile" in the coming weeks with investors keeping an eye on developments on global markets.

Amman - Hundreds of Jordanians staged a sit-in Thursday to protest what they called attempts by extremist Jews to storm Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine.

The protest was organized by the Islamic Action Front, Jordan's largest political party and an arm of the influential Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Participants raised placards and chanted slogans urging the government to sever diplomatic ties with Israel and to close down the Israeli embassy in Amman.

Amman - Pan-Arab financial institutions and lending agencies opened a two-day meeting Wednesday to look into the global financial crisis and review strategies for the future.

Finance ministers, central bank governors and the heads of the Kuwait-based Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Abu Dhabi-based Arab Monetary Fund and the Arab Institution for Investment Guarantee are taking part in the talks at the Dead Sea resort.

Amman - Jordan's State Security Court Wednesday decided to jail three alleged Hamas activists for five years with hard labour after finding them guilty of espionage activities, judicial sources said.

The three defendants - Thabet Abul Haj, Salim al-Housani and Azzam Jaber - were found guilty of trying to obtain "information that should remain confidential" as well as possession of unlicensed automatic weapons, the source said.