AMMAN -- Iraq has tightened controls over traffic and communication links with Jordan following moves by Amman against President Saddam Hussein's government, officials and travelers said Thursday.


Since Saturday, Baghdad has doubled the exit fee Iraqis must pay to the Interior Ministry to 400,000 Iraqi dinars ($150), travelers and Iraqi bus drivers said. A month is needed for approval compared with 10 days previously.


For its part, Jordan said Thursday that its border controls and other ties with Iraq remained unaffected by politics.


"Jordan has no intention of closing its borders with Iraq. ... Jordan has never resorted in any time to subjecting its borders, economic and human ties to its political positions," Foreign Minister Abdul-Karim al-Kabariti said.


Iraq is Jordan's only supplier of oil and, other officials dismissed the possibility that the border, a lifeline for sanctions-bound Iraq, might be closed if relations worsened.


The move has dealt a severe blow to passenger traffic, already curtailed since relations deteriorated when King Hussein criticized Saddam after giving refuge to two defecting senior Iraqi aides in August.


Before the new controls, an average of 150 people a day traveled to Jordan from Iraq by bus and taxi.


"The numbers of Iraqis coming to Jordan has virtually dropped to zero since the measures," said bus owner Mohammed Yusef.


Officials confirmed that Baghdad had cut off direct international dialing to Amman. They said this appeared to be designed to prevent coordination between exiled opposition groups and supporters inside the country.


Jordan said Wednesday it had seized toxic chemicals capable of being used in weapons, which were bound for Iraq in breach of UN sanctions.


The sanctions were imposed on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.


Medicine and humanitarian goods are exempt from the UN embargo.