Thousands of Jordanians protested Friday in the capital Amman against US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan and set fire to the Israeli flag. Chanting "Death to Israel", about 3,000 people took part in the demonstration, which started in front of the city's Al-Husseini Mosque, amid a heavy security presence, an AFP photographer said.

Protesters carried Jordanian and Palestinian flags and held up signs that read "Jordan rejects the deal of the century" and "Down with the deal of the century". Protesters chanted, "Listen, damn Trump, Palestine is not for sale" and "The Jordanian and Palestinian people are one, not two".

Key US ally Jordan is one of two Arab countries along with Egypt to have a peace treaty with Israel, and more than half of the country's population is of Palestinian origin. Almost 300 people demonstrated in front of the US Embassy in Amman, calling on Arab and Muslim countries to support the Palestinians and the "resistance" against the Jewish state.

Hundreds gathered in similar protests in the cities of Irbid in the country's north, in Karak, south of Amman, and in Salt, northwest of the capital. The protests came as King Abdullah II reaffirmed Jordan's "firm position" on the Palestinian issue in a phone conversation with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, the palace said.

He said Jordan will continue to back the Palestinian people in their effort to set up an independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital, a statement added. The US plan released on Tuesday was seen as heavily biased towards Israel and was angrily rejected by Palestinians, with one of the key bones of contention being its classification of Jerusalem as Israel's "undivided capital".