"Jordan will do its utmost to end the injustices which have been inflicted on the Palestinian people and to enable them to get rid of the (Israeli) occupation and set up their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital," the king said in his Speech from the Throne.

He said that the Hashemite Kingdom would continue to work for a "comprehensive peace" between Israel and Arab countries on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative and the relevant UN resolutions.

The Saudi-authored Arab peace blueprint offers Israel full recognition by all Arab states if it pulls out from all territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, including East Jerusalem which was then part of the Jordanian state.

King Abdallah also pledged that his country would exert maximum effort to enable neighboring violence-torn Iraq to restore its stability and security as well as "its vital role in the region and the world."

On the internal front, the king urged the new Parliament to live up to its legislative and supervisory responsibilities and cooperate with the government toward accomplishing a package of political and economic reforms set to advance the democratic drive in the country.

He said that the government would be sending to the Parliament the temporary election law, upon which the Nov. 9 elections were conducted, with a view to introducing the required amendments and adopting a permanent legislation that meets international standards.

The country's main opposition party, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), has boycotted the latest polls, demanding a new election law that provided for proportional representation.

Last November, King Abdallah dissolved the previous lower house of Parliament, two years before the completion of its four-year term, amid reports that it had failed to perform its legislative and supervisory functions.

The latest elections revealed certain loopholes that prompted the state-funded National Center for Human Rights (NCHR) to urge the new Parliament to introduce certain changes to the legislation.

Dressed in formal military attire, the monarch told members of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate that "the Legislative Authority has a pivotal constitutional role."

"We do not accept any situation in which the role of the House of Representatives is undermined. And we do not accept any distortion of its image among the people," said the 48-year-old king.