Jamal Damour, head of Jordanian parliament's public freedoms' committee, slammed on Monday an Iraqi call for asking Jordan to extradite Raghad, the elder daughter of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The Iraqi government's demand is "immoral and provocative", Damour was quoted as saying by local media reports.

On Sunday, Iraq released a new 41-member list of "most wanted" fugitives, including Saddam's wife and their elder daughter Raghad. Damour said, "Raghad enjoys in Jordan international protection in line with international conventions including the 1937 Geneva Convention and Montreal's convention of 1971."

"The international community abides by the rules of international legislation as a source for the international law and the Jordanian law of 1927 for deporting wanted criminals bars handing over Raghad to any party requesting her extradition," he added.

The lawmaker stressed that "we are in Jordan abide by the law and respect international rules."

Meanwhile, Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit is insisting that Raghad and her children remain "the guests of Royal Hashemite family", because they are in Jordan for pure humanitarian reasons.

Jordan, however, has not received any formal request from the Iraqi authorities to hand over Raghad and such a request should be in line with the formal procedures, he stressed.

(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2006)