Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said on Saturday that any Arab League sanctions against Syria must be compatible with the interests of each member country.

"We support Arab unity in regards to the Syrian issue, but as I said during the Arab League ministerial meeting (on Thursday), the interests of our country must be taken into consideration," Judeh said in joint news conference with his Cypriot counterpart.

Jordan's foreign minister has said dozens of Syrian army defectors have "illegally" entered the neighboring kingdom, but his assertions were denied by the government spokesman in comments published on Tuesday.

"Some Syrians, including former members of the armed forces, have entered Jordan illegally ... not through border posts," Nasser Judeh said in an interview with the state-run Jordan Television on Monday night.

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Monday landed in the West Bank city of Ramallah for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his first visit in more than a decade.

His helicopter was greeted by a large official delegation as it touched down inside the presidential compound, the Muqataa, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

More than 1,000 Jordanians marched after Muslim weekly prayers on Friday in a protest called by opposition Islamists pushing for political reform and an end to corruption.

The march began outside Al-Husseini mosque in central Amman and moved towards city hall about a kilometer away.

Residents of a border town went on an overnight rampage after a Jordanian, who allegedly helped two Syrians buy arms, died in detention, police said on Thursday.

Angry protesters in Ramtha, a town north of Amman and near the border with Syria, set fire to the governor's offices, the courthouse and a police car before a riot squad broke up the demonstration using tear gas.

More than 100 demonstrators stormed the Jordanian embassy in Damascus and tore down the flag in protest at King Abdullah II's call for Syrian President Bashar Assad to go, Jordanian newspapers said Tuesday.

It was the fourth such protest against embassies of regional powers by angry Assad loyalists since the Arab League voted on Saturday to suspend Syria and impose sanctions against the regime over its bloody eight-month crackdown on peaceful protesters.

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Monday became the first Arab leader to call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, in a BBC interview.

"I believe, if I were in his shoes, I would step down," the king said. "I would step down and make sure whoever comes behind me has the ability to change the status quo that we're seeing."

An Egyptian pipeline delivering gas to Israel and Jordan was hit by two explosions Thursday, Egypt's security services and state media said, the seventh time it has been attacked by militants this year.

A first blast occurred around 1:00 am (23:00 GMT Wednesday) 40 kilometers west of the town of al-Arish in the north of the Sinai peninsula, a security source said.

A senior U.S. official will on Monday launch a three-country campaign to firm up sanctions against Syria and to tackle transnational organized crime, the U.S. Treasury Department said.

Assistant Secretary Daniel Glaser will travel to Beirut, Moscow and Amman for a week-long visit.

Rescue services evacuated 1,230 passengers onto life rafts from a burning ferry in the Red Sea on Thursday, with one Egyptian dying after jumping into the sea, Jordan's civil defense spokesman told Agence France Presse.

By afternoon, only the captain and three crew members remained aboard the stricken ship.