Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II in Amman recently to discuss violence in Syria and the country's chemical weapons stock, Israeli media said Thursday.

Public radio, as well as several local newspapers, said Israeli and Jordanian officials had confirmed the meeting, which was first reported in the al-Quds al-Arabi daily on Wednesday.

The IMF said on Wednesday Jordan's decision to raise fuel prices by up to 53 percent last month was "an important step," despite violent protests in which three were killed and more than 70 injured.

"Despite this challenging environment, the authorities have been implementing sound macroeconomic policies aimed at reducing fiscal and external imbalances in a socially acceptable way. The removal of general subsidies on all fuel products ... was an important step," it said in a statement.

Iraq and Jordan agreed on Monday to extend an oil pipeline to the Red Sea city of Aqaba for the export of Iraqi crude, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said after a fleeting visit to Amman.

"It was agreed to extend an oil pipeline across Jordan to Aqaba to export Iraqi oil and satisfy Jordan's crude requirements," the Iraqi premier told journalists, saying this would "end the transportation of oil using tankers."

About 2,000 Iraqi protesters, demanding the ouster of Premier Nouri al-Maliki, blocked on Sunday a highway in western Iraq leading to Syria and Jordan, an AFP correspondent reported.

The protesters, including local officials, religious and tribal leaders, turned out in Ramadi, the capital of Sunni province of Anbar, to demonstrate against the arrest of nine guards of Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi.

Jordan said on Thursday Egypt has resumed full gas supply of 250 million cubic meters (8.8 billion cubic feet) a day to the energy-poor kingdom, after the flow was disrupted by repeated pipeline attacks.

"In the past few days, we received between 190 and 210 million cubic meters of gas from Egypt. But today Egypt resumed full supplies of 250 million cubic meters," Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur told a joint news conference with his Egyptian counterpart Hisham Qandil.

Norhima Hayral from the Philippines sought refuge in a shelter for abused Asian housemaids in Jordan to escape from employers she says both beat and raped her.

"The recruitment agency took my passport the second I arrived in Amman's airport" six months ago, 27-year-old Hayral told Agence France Presse at the shelter funded by Manila's Overseas Labor Office.

King Abdullah II on Monday ordered the release of around 100 people arrested during violent protests last month against fuel price hikes, the official Petra news agency reported.

It said the king instructed Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur "to take the necessary legal measures to release those arrested during the recent demonstrations in several regions of the country" against the rises.

A stray bullet fired from inside Syria wounded a Jordanian soldier on the border on Friday, prompting the kingdom's army to respond to the source of fire, an armed forces spokesman said.

"The border area in Tel Shehab has in the past few hours witnessed heavy fighting between the Syrian (regime) army and the Free Syrian Army," he said in a statement carried by the state-run Petra news agency.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon appealed Friday for more aid to help hundreds of thousands who have fled the Syrian conflict, as he visited a refugee camp in neighboring Jordan.

"I call on the international community and particularly the countries of the region to provide on (an) urgent basis humanitarian assistance," he said at the Zaatari camp in Jordan, which hosts more than 250,000 Syrians.

Jordan's King Abdullah II arrives in Ramallah on Thursday on his first visit since the Palestinians won U.N. recognition as a non-member state, a senior official told Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

"King Abdullah will visit the state of Palestine the day after tomorrow, on Thursday, in the first visit by a top official to the Palestinian state after we received U.N. recognition," said Nimr Hammad, political adviser to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.