Amman- Jordan's King Abdullah II on Saturday condemned the ex

Amman  - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed "understanding of Jordan's concerns" over excavations being conducted by Israel at the al-Aqsa Mosque's al-Magharebah Gate in East Jerusalem, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry reported Tuesday.

In response to a message from Jordanian Foreign Minister Salah Bashir, "the Secretary General said in his letter that he was well- aware of the circumstances surrounding the excavations and the planned building near al-Magharebah Gate and that he understands Jordan's concerns in this respect," the Foreign Ministry statement said.

Amman  - The first shipment of oil from Iraq to Jordan arrived at the Iraqi side of the border and is expected to enter Jordanian territory later in the day, Jordan's Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Khaldoun Quteishat said Tuesday.

He said the shipment was carried by 16 cargo tankers that were scheduled to unload at the Jordan Petroleum Refinery near Zarqa, 30 kilometres east of the capital Amman.

Over the past three days, a total of 18,500 barrels of Iraqi oil were loaded by tankers for Jordan from the Kurdish region's Biji station, one of the three main refineries in Iraq, Quteishat said.

Amman - King Abdullah II of Jordan is to travel to Cairo on Tuesday for talks with Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak on the latest developments in the Middle East, officials said Monday.

Amman- Jordan and Russia on Monday urged Israel to stop all practices that could "derail" the peace process, including settlement activity in the Palestinian territories, an official statement said.

The remark came during a meeting between Jordanian Foreign Minister Salah Bashir and the Russian Middle East envoy Alexander Saltanov.

Amman