Amman - Arab stock markets reflected mixed performance this week as investors remained under psychological pressures from global markets and the impact of first quarter results, financial analysts said Friday.

"Regional markets are relatively stable, but investors are still responsive to what takes place on Wall Street and other global bourses," Nizar Taher, head of brokerage at the Jordan Ahli Bank, told the German Press Agency dpa.

Amman - Jordanian politicians and pundits on Wednesday welcomed US President Barack Obama's strong support for the two-state solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict - but queried the pressure he would put on the right-wing government in Israel.

"We are optimistic, but we should not go too far in this optimism," Mahmoud Mhaidat, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee at the Jordanian lower house of parliament, told German Press Agency dpa.

Amman - Jordan's influential Muslim Brotherhood movement on Sunday urged Pope Benedict XVI to postpone his planned Middle East visit next month and to apologize for statements that the group considers "injurious" to Islam.

"We hope that the Vatican will take a decision to postpone the visit until certain issues are cleared," Muslim Brotherhood official spokesman Jamil Abu Bakr said in a statement.

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.