Jordan protesters call for 'downfall of the regime'

AMMAN (REUTERS) - Thousands of demonstrators chanted the Arab Spring slogan "the people want the downfall of the regime" in Jordan on Friday, although a day billed as the culmination of three days of protests passed off largely in peace.

Jordan has so far largely avoided the unrest that has swept across the Middle East over the past two years, but a decision this week to raise fuel prices led to the demonstrations.

The mainly urban Muslim Brotherhood announced on Friday it was joining the protests, lending the voice of the country's largest opposition movement to demonstrations which had previously been focused on rural and tribal areas.

Friday's protest near the main Husseini Mosque in downtown Amman was peaceful, with unarmed police separating the demonstrators denouncing King Abdullah from a smaller crowd chanting in support of the monarch.