In a telephone call with Maliki, the King renewed support for efforts aimed to render the ongoing Iraqi political process a success, stressing the need for the participation of all components of the Iraqi society in this process.

He also reaffirmed Jordan’s backing for Iraqi security, the topic of two-day talks between officials from both sides which wrapped up here yesterday.

The two countries agreed to share more intelligence to fight terrorism across the region, Iraq's national security adviser said on Wednesday.

"We agreed to develop intelligence sharing to a qualitatively new level as the enemy is one and the main goal is fighting Al Qaeda and the defeat of terrorists," Muwaffaq Rubaie said.

Towards that end, the official said, Iraq will set up a team of experts to bolster cooperation in counterterrorism and enhance border security with Jordan.

"We agreed to set up a technical team of experts from Iraq's security and intelligence services as well as the justice ministry in order to boost security and intelligence cooperation with Jordan," he told a news conference.

Describing the talks as "very serious and very frank", the security adviser said: "I cannot say that our discussions were easy... There were difficult issues but the brothers in Jordan made them easy."

He spoke after suicide bomb attacks overnight killed 200 people in northwest Iraq. The US military said on Wednesday Al Qaeda was the "prime suspect".

In November 2005, triple Al Qaeda suicide bombings killed around 90 people at hotels in Amman.

"We agreed that the threats affecting Iraqi national security are the same that face Jordan. Our common enemies are Al Qaeda and religious extremism that prevails in some parts of our region," Rubaie said at the end of the talks.

"This is an intelligence-led war against Al Qaeda... Iraq is in the forefront of this global terror... so this is not a war of Iraq versus Al Qaeda. Security in Iraq is crucial for stability in the region," Rubaie said.

Rubaie revealed that Iraqi authorities arrested nine Jordanians accused of terrorist issues, noting that investigation is still under way.

There are six other Jordanians in Iraqi jails convicted of criminal acts.

He rejected as baseless that Jordan and Iraq are mulling the handover of Jordanian detainees to Amman in return for Iraqi political and media opposition figures residing in the Kingdom.

Iraq also listened to Jordanian fears that Iraq's security forces could be infiltrated by Shiite militias supported by Iranian intelligence, Rubaie said.

"We listened to these complaints. We are realistic and know that the Iraqi security forces have seen some penetrations and excesses," Rubaie said.

Jordanian security sources say Shiite-led militias with ties to Iran prevail in the Iraqi police and many are behind death squads blamed for sectarian violence, according to Reuters.

Jordanian officials were briefed about the purge of 13,000 interior ministry employees accused of a role in sectarian killings and the probe of 9,000 other personnel, Rubaie added.

Rubaie also discussed with Jordanian officials ways of easing the "hardships" facing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have sought refuge in Jordan from the violence in Iraq.

"We found open minds and hearts in order to support Iraq, to support the political process and to support the Iraqis who are present in Jordan," he said.

Jordan will be considering a request by Baghdad to apply a visa requirement for Iraqis who wish to come to the country, Rubaie said.