It's believed that concern over deadly riots caused by joblessness and poor prospects for youths in Algeria and Tunisia might have helped spur the government move. It follows a government announcement last week of a $125 million package of partial subsidies for fuel and staple products like sugar and rice.

Speaking at a special parliamentary session focused on ways to alleviate the burden of the poor, Samir Rifai put the price tag on the additional subsidies and raises at $425 million in 2011.

The new package includes a raise for civil servants and an increase in pensions for retired military and civilian personnel as of Jan. 1, Rifai said. He also said it expands the current subsidies to cover livestock and liquefied gas used for heating and cooking.

“The rising prices of foodstuffs and fuel is not a Jordanian government decision,” he said. “It's the result of a global increase in prices.”

Jordan's opposition rejected the original subsidies on fuel and foodstuffs as insufficient.

Hamza Mansour, the head of the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood - Jordan's largest opposition group - declined to comment on the new subsidy package.

Jordan is saddled by a foreign debt, which swelled by $4 billion to $15 billion last year, an inflation which jumped by 1.5 percent to 6.1 percent last month, unemployment and poverty - estimated at 12 percent and 25 percent respectively.

“The problem we face is accumulative and caused by an unprecedented deficit,” Rifai said, referring to a record budget deficit of $2.1 billion, which the government had planned to reduce by 30 percent this year.