A Jordanian court on Tuesday sentenced three Syrians to five years in prison each for trying to smuggle 36 remote control detonators into their country to help anti-government rebels.

Civilian judges at the military state security court found the three men guilty of carrying out acts "that would harm Jordan's relations with another country, exposing the kingdom to the danger of reprisal acts," a judicial official told AFP.

Masked gunmen kidnapped Jordan's ambassador to Libya as he rode to work in Tripoli on Tuesday, shooting at his car and wounding his driver, officials said.

It was the latest targeting of Libyan leaders and foreign diplomats in the increasingly lawless North African country, three years after NATO-backed rebels ousted autocratic leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Jordan's King Abdullah II is to travel to Moscow on Wednesday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Syrian conflict, after visits to the Vatican and Austria, the palace said.

The king will stop Monday in the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis, who is to visit Jordan as part of a Holy Land tour in May, before heading to Austria on Tuesday.

A man was killed and 10 Syrian refugees were arrested when a riot erupted in a desert camp of northern Jordan, a security chief said on Sunday.

"Unknown assailants shot and killed a 25-year-old Syrian man during the riots on Saturday" at Zaatari refugee camp, Brigadier General Waddah Hmud said.

The army said Monday it is to open a new investigation into the March 10 killing of a Jordanian judge by Israeli soldiers at a West Bank border crossing.

The probe will be carried out in coordination with Jordanian authorities, it said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was holding late-night talks with the leadership in Jerusalem and Ramallah on Monday on his latest mission to salvage the crisis-hit peace process.

He flew in from Paris for what was expected to be little more than a 15-hour visit to push both sides to resolve a lingering dispute over Palestinian prisoners which is threatening to derail the negotiations ahead of an April 29 deadline.

Jordan's King Abdullah II held talks on Monday with Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog on the Middle East peace process, a palace statement said.

"The king and the head of the Labor Party and member of the Knesset Isaac Herzog discussed efforts to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians under the sponsorship of the United States," the palace said without elaborating.

The emir of energy-rich Qatar, a key backer of Sudan's Islamist regime, visits cash-strapped Khartoum next week for talks on bolstering ties, official media said on Saturday.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani's one-day trip Wednesday will come as tensions reached unprecedented levels between Doha and other Gulf states over its perceived support for the widely-banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Pope Francis will pray side-by-side with Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew in Jerusalem in a powerful sign of Christian unity during his May visit to Holy Land, the Vatican said on Thursday.

The prayer will take place in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built over the spots widely believed to be the sites of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Jordan's King Abdullah II Wednesday in a fresh bid to keep his Middle East peace bid on track, amid fears Israel may renege on a vow to free Palestinian prisoners.

Flying in from an interrupted visit to Rome, Kerry was also to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in Amman in a bid to "continue to narrow the gaps" between the two sides, his spokeswoman said.