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Professional associations in Jordan with about half a million members have staged a warning strike to press demands that the government scrap a planned tax increase.

After the half-day walkout on Wednesday, hundreds of activists chanted anti-government slogans outside a union office in the capital of Amman.

The Council of Professional Associations had organized a first strike a week ago, providing the spark for nightly street protests that eventually forced Jordan's prime minister to resign.

Jordan's King Abdullah II has since appointed a leading reformer, outgoing Education Minister Omar Razzaz, as the new prime minister and has promised to review the tax bill.

Jordan's trade union federation says it will suspend protests to give the Razzaz government a chance to address the country's economic problems.