AFP - Jordan prepared on Friday to welcome Pope Benedict XVI on his first visit as pontiff to an Arab country, enforcing tight security controls across Amman and decking the streets with flags.
  
Jordan's elite royal guard and army forces were posted along the Queen Alia Airport, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of the capital, where the pontiff was to arrive early afternoon at the start of an eight-day Holy Land tour.
  
Dozens of schoolchildren and boy scouts wearing white T-shirts bearing the  portraits of King Abdullah II and the pope were taken to the airport in buses to welcome the pontiff.
  
The king and his wife Queen Rania are to receive the pope on his arrival.
  
The streets of the capital were festooned with Jordanian and Vatican flags.
  
Friday and Saturday are weekly holidays in Jordan but the government has issued a decree allowing Christians to take leave on Sunday to attend papal functions, including mass at the Amman International Stadium.
  
Private schools have decided to shut on Sunday while government schools have said they will provide students with large screens in libraries to follow the visit live.
  
The 82-year-old head of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics left Rome earlier Friday on a special flight for Jordan, where Christians number around 200,00 of a total population of about six million.
  
His eight-day tour will also take him to Israel and the Palestinian territories.