Islamic Action Front (IAF) deputies Mohammed Abu Fares, Jaafar Horani, Ali Abu Sukkar and Ibrahim Mashukhi were summoned on Sunday, government spokesman Nasser Jawdeh said.

He said they are being questioned "after security reports and press statements they made concerning the terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who has claimed responsibility for the (November 9) Amman hotel bombings".

He called their press statements praising Zarqawi, killed on Wednesday near Baquba north of Baghdad, "a clear violation of the law because it sows discord".

Jawdeh said the authorities received formal complaints from families of the November hotel bombings after the deputies paid their condolences on Friday to the Zarqawi family in his hometown of Zarqa, north of Amman.

"Jordan opposes terrorism and all those who support terrorists," Jawdeh said.

The Muslim Brotherhood denounced the detention of the Islamist MPs and demanded their release.

"Although we respect the blood of the innocent martyrs killed in the Amman hotel bombings, we totally reject the way in which deputies were treated," said a statement on the IAF Internet website.

The IAF is the political branch of the Brotherhood, and has 17 members in the 110-seat parliament. It called the MPs' detention "a violation of their constitutional rights".

But MP Jamal Dmur told AFP Monday that the deputies "do not enjoy parliamentary immunity currently because parliament is in summer recess".

In a separate statement, IAF chief Zaki Bani Rsheid said the MPs had acted in a personal capacity.

"We did not prevent, nor did we support, this private initiative which falls within the norms of social duty," he said.

On Sunday parliament and families of victims killed in the November bombings condemned the four MPs for presenting their condolences to Zarqawi's family.

"We strongly denounce and condemn MPs Ibrahim Mashukhi, Mohammed Abu Fares, Ali Abu Sukkar and Jaafar Horani... for presenting their condolences for the so-called martyr," the families said in a statement.

Relatives of the hotel bomb victims said Abu Fares described "the criminal (Zarqawi) as a martyr" at Friday prayers in Zarqa.

Parliament blasted the deputies "for presenting condolences to a terrorist", and urged the IAF to censure them, the state-run Petra news agency reported.

Press reports said the four deputies, three of whom are from Zarqa, visited the family last Friday.

One, Abu Sukkar, was quoted in the press as saying the visit was out of solidarity and in keeping with tribal and religious traditions.