King sells land to pay troops

King Abdullah of Jordan has said he is to sell some of his private land to finance a pay rise for members of the armed forces.

The King announced the move at a meeting with senior military officers.

He said he was taking the decision because the Jordanian government had failed to implement a pay rise for the armed forces decided a year ago.

The increase -- of fourteen dollars a month -- would have cost the government more than twenty million dollars a year.

The King did not say which of his lands he was selling.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service