Amman - The Jordan Petroleum Refinery Co (JPRC) has signed a preliminary memorandum of understanding with a consortium of 12 Swiss banks that allow them to acquire a 51-per-cent stake in the sole Jordanian downstream facility, a JPRC spokesman said Monday.

The agreement, signed Sunday, provides for "a strategic partnership" that involves the spending of about 1.5 billion dollars by the Swiss banks for financing the JPRC's fourth expansion, the spokesman told German Press Agency dpa, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Amman - Jordan's lower house of parliament is abanonding an attempt to sue Israeli leaders before the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the January offensive on the Gaza Strip because the chamber lacked "legal and constitutional powers," parliament speaker Abdul Hadi Majali was quoted on Monday as saying.

Majali made the revelation in a letter to the Islamic Action Front, Jordan's largest political party.

Amman - Jordan has protested to Syria against what it called "violations" of the sharing agreement of the Yarmouk River water, the Jordan Times reported Sunday.

The protest was made by the Jordan Valley Authority's Secretary General Musa Jamaani during a meeting on Saturday of a technical panel affiliated with the Jordanian-Syrian Committee of the Yarmouk River Basin, the paper said.

"The violations of the water sharing agreement are unacceptable," Jamaani was quoted as telling the Syrian side.

Amman - The Jordanian government will sign a "strategic partnership agreement" at the end of April with British Petroleum and four affiliated companies for the development of the Risheh gas field near the Iraqi border, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Khaldoun Quteishat was quoted as saying Saturday.

The accord, now in its final negotiation stage, is the largest gas venture in the country eventually involving a multi-billion-dollar investment, he told the daily newspaper al-Rai.

Amman  - Jordan - an active participant in the search for a Middle East peace and one of the few Arab countries with formal ties with Israel - will face trying times ahead as a new government containing far-right takes office in Israel, prominent Jordanian academics and politicians said Thursday.

Amman, Jordan  - Florence Kiplagat ended a 15-year drought for Kenya at the cross-country running world championships on Saturday while Ethiopia got another win in the men's race from Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam.

Kiplagat came from behind to beat compatriot Linet Masai, who had built what appeared a decisive advantage in the closing stages, by three seconds in the 8-kilometres race.