“I hereby emphasize before the honorable house that we are committed to, and keen on, the adoption of the parliamentary system,” the monarch said as he opened a new term of the lower house of Parliament after returning from its summer recess.

“We intend to apply this as of the next Parliament which we want to be the production of a large democratic transformation process,” he added.

Abdallah did not say when the new elections would be held, but in recent remarks the monarch made it clear that he preferred early general elections in the second half of 2012 after the present house concludes its task in the enactment of the new election law and the political parties law.

“The critical circumstances and transformations in the region prompt us to set forth our firm conviction that sticking to the reform path, popular participation, the correction of previous mistakes and the completion of a system of justice and accountability that ensures the separation of powers is the only way for advancement,” he said.

King Abdallah spoke against the backdrop of eight months of pro-reform demonstrations in Jordan that were inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

The monarch on Monday approved the formation of a new government, led by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) judge, Awn Khasawneh, after sacking the Cabinet of Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit in response to protests that accused him of deliberately holding political reform and being lenient in the fight of the entrenched corruption.

The new Cabinet hit its first snag when the Islamic-led opposition cast doubt on the ability of the new government in carrying out the political and economic reforms assigned to it by the monarch.

Apparently do dissipate such fears, King Abdullah told the Parliament on Wednesday that he had instructed the new Cabinet to “ensure the availability of the suitable environment for democratic interaction and securing freedom of responsible expression of opinion, including peaceful demonstration”.

“The government should learn from the previous mistakes by dealing in a civilized manner with all forms of opinion expression, including peaceful protests,” he said.
 
The king referred to several mob attacks on protesters that were blamed by organizers on the security authorities allegedly with the aim of derailing reforms.