Jordan Moves Tentatively Toward Embargo on Iraq : Sanctions: Amman requests compensation for cutting trade with its neighbor, and the U.N. sets up a panel to consider it.

The government of Jordan took its first public, if tentative, step Thursday toward complying with a U.N. trade embargo on Iraq by asking for $2 billion in compensation for direct and indirect costs of cutting off commerce with its next-door neighbor.

The United Nations set up a special committee in New York to consider Jordan’s request for aid. “Jordan is a special case and needs particular help,” said Crispin Tickell, the British ambassador to the United Nations, in a report from New York. Bulgaria has also asked for consideration; Iraq owes it $1.2 billion in loans that were being paid off in oil deliveries.

Iraq’s oil exports are now virtually cut off by the U.N. sanctions and its imports virtually halted by a United States-enforced military blockade.

The government here will make no special announcements about the sanctions, officials said. It is considered politically too risky, given the positive feeling toward Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein among Jordanians and the perception that the West is trying to keep oil prices low and the Arab world poor.

“There is no need to announce the sanctions,” said Taher Masri, a member of the Jordanian Parliament and head of its Foreign Affairs Committee. “These sanctions are mandatory, so we will comply. There is no need to talk about it.”

The Bush Administration had expressed concern that Jordan, which has relied heavily on Iraq for oil and other trade, would be a gaping hole in the effort to strangle the Iraqi economy. But it appears that, in this respect, Jordan will be less and less of a problem for Washington.

Jordan is asking to maintain country-to-country trade with Iraq as a form of compensation, officials indicated. In any case, Jordanian officials say, common people, if it is within their means, will not cut off trade with Iraq.

Much of Jordan’s responsibility for blocking goods bound for Iraq has already been superseded by the American naval blockade. A blockade of the Jordanian port of Aqaba has effectively dried up imports bound for Iraq. Other trade from Jordan is expected to slow as Iraq tightens its belt; even before the Aug. 2 invasion, Iraq was strapped for cash. Baghdad was sending oil to Jordan to pay off a debt incurred during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War.

King Hussein of Jordan, after an initial strong tilt toward Iraq, has been trying to renew his image as a neutral party in the Middle East conflict. Jordanian observers note that the monarch disclosed Wednesday that he had not had contact with Saddam Hussein for more than a week. This was supposed to be a sign that the two are not as close as the king had earlier suggested.

On Thursday, the Jordanian king embarked on a tour of Arab countries to promote his proposals that the Arabs themselves mediate and resolve the conflict.

For the first time, Jordan has forcefully criticized Iraq’s holding of Western hostages. In a television interview, the king’s brother, Prince Hassan, who is in charge during the monarch’s absence, said that Jordan was “horrified” by the holding of civilians.