Jordan's king defers new parliamentary session by two months

Amman - Jordan's King Abdullah II on Wednesday issued a decree postponing the start of the new parliamentary session by two months, according to a royal court statement. The new parliamentary session will begin on December 1 instead of October 1, the statement said.

It did not state the reasons of the decision, but local press reports suggested the monarch could be mulling a cabinet reshuffle or a change of the government led by Prime Minister Nader Dahabi.

Local editorialists have blamed the government for failure to come up with solutions for the country's key problems, particularly poverty and rising staple food prices.

The government has also been trying to come to grips with an unprecedented budget deficit that was aggravated by the fallouts of the global recession.

Last week, the government concluded talks with the World Bank for signing an agreement under which the world body will loan Jordan 300 million dollars to be used for narrowing the budget gap, which is expected to reach 1.5 billion dollars in fiscal 2009.