Jordan on Wednesday was hit by more protests and strikes as anger mounted against a government increase in fuel prices a day after mobs attacked a police station and surrounded the prime minister's house.

The sudden price hike drew sharp condemnation from the opposition Islamists, who warned of civil disobedience and increased opposition to the government in the run-up to general elections in January, which they are boycotting.

A Jordanian court on Sunday sentenced former spy chief Mohammed Dahabi to 13 years in jail with hard labor and ordered him to pay a 21-million-dinar ($29-million) fine after finding him guilty of corruption.

Dahabi, a general who ran the intelligence department from 2005 to 2008, was detained in February and charged with money laundering, abuse of power and embezzlement.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday toured a desert refugee camp for Syrians in northern Jordan, walking down a dusty road between the tents before visiting a U.N.-run school.

Dressed casually in black trousers, a grey shirt and a sporting a Remembrance poppy, Cameron took time to speak to some of the more than 36,000 Syrians housed in tents and caravans in the Zaatari refugee camp near the Syria border.

The Palestinians will push on with a bid to achieve non-member status at the United Nations despite pressure for them to back down, top negotiator Saeb Erakat said on Monday.

"No matter what pressure we are facing... we will not go back on our decision," Erakat said in Amman after talks in the Jordanian capital between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi.

Details emerged on Saturday of plans to reshape Syria's opposition into a representative government-in-exile, on the eve of key talks between regime opponents.

The talks starting Sunday in the Qatari capital Doha come amid U.S. criticism of the main exiled opposition group, the Syrian National Council (SNC), which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said this week was not representative.

The widow and children of Salafist Mahmoud Abdelal, who blew himself up in Syria last month, were all ears as his proud but grieving mother described his commitment to jihad.

His story is particularly timely, given that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the Syrian opposition on Wednesday to resist efforts by Islamist "extremists" to hijack the revolution to oust President Bashar Assad.

Jordan police on Tuesday were detaining 61 Syrians who were traveling in three trucks near the southern town of Maan, an Islamist stronghold, a statement said.

"A police patrol in Maan governorate seized today three trucks carrying 61 Syrians, who are now in detention. The drivers were arrested too," a Public Security Directorate statement said.

Jordanian police said on Tuesday they have arrested seven Syrians for carrying 35 "advanced" walkie-talkies, which are banned in the kingdom.

"The seven Syrian men were arrested on Monday in Amman and Irbid (in the north)," police spokesman Mohammed Khatib told Agence France Presse.

A group of angry Syrians set fire to their tents in protest at "bad living conditions" at the Zaatari desert refugee camp in northern Jordan, a leading charity said on Tuesday.

"A number of Syrian refugees torched 20 tents last night, protesting bad living conditions in Zaatari and demanding the authorities replace tents with caravans," said Zayed Hammad, head of the Ketab and Sunna Society, a charity that helps hundreds of thousands of Syrians in the kingdom.

A Jordanian soldier was killed before dawn on Monday in a clash with militants trying to cross the border into neighboring Syria, the Information and Culture Minister Samih Maaytah told AFP.

He said that "corporal Mohammed Abdullah al-Munasir, 25 years old, was martyred during a clash with an armed group that wanted to enter Syria."