Amman - The Euro-Med Ministerial Conference on Water has been called off indefinitely due to differences over the participation of the Arab League, Jordanian Foreign Minister Salah Bashir said Sunday.

The conference had been slated for Tuesday in Jordan's Red Sea resort. Bashir was quoted by the official Petra news agency as saying the gathering was postponed "to allow room for reaching agreement on some issues, foremost the participation of the Arab League and its membership in the Union for the Mediterranean."

"Jordan rejects taking prior or individual attitudes that could influence the discussions due to take place in the coming meetings," he added.

Amman - Arab stock markets tumbled this week as panicked investors dumped shares to avert worse repercussions of the global recession despite steps taken by financial authorities to replenish liquidity shortages, financial analysts said Friday.

"Investors in the region are still suffering from psychological pressures and indirect impact of the global financial turmoil," Nizar Taher, chief of brokerage at the Jordan Ahli Bank, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Amman - The interior ministers of Iraq's neighbouring countries ended a one-day meeting in the Syrian capital Amman Thursday by pledging their support for the restoration of security to the violence-torn country.

According to a joint communique, the participating countries agreed to "cooperate bilaterally or collectively and to take all necessary measures to prevent terrorists" from using their territories as bases for mobilization, training or financing.

Amman- Jordan and South Korea on Thursday initialed an agreement on nuclear cooperation for peaceful purposes.

The accord was signed by the Chairman of the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) Khalid Touqan and the South Korean ambassador in Amman Bongkil Shin.

Touqan said that the deal would be officially signed in Seoul in December.

The agreement provides for cooperation between the two countries in several areas such as technical assistance, site selection, design, construction and nuclear safety, he added.

Amman  - Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad Bolani said Thursday that the security pact being negotiated with the United States was a "purely national issue" and that Baghdad rejected any external interference in its contents.

"The security agreement with the United States is a purely national issue and thus we cannot accept any meddling that injures Iraq's interests," Bolani told reporters before the opening of a meeting that groups Interior Ministers of Iraq and eight neighbouring countries.

"The security agreement is subject only to the vision of the Iraqi government," he added.

Amman - Interior ministers of Iraq and eight of its neighbouring countries were scheduled to meet in Amman Thursday to discuss ways of helping the Iraqi government restore security to the violence-torn nation.

The two-day conference, the fifth of its type since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, will be attended by Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Turkey and Iran.