By Adel Darwish

When the 63-year-old King Hussein of Jordan appeared at the White House to place his personal seal on the Palestinian-Israeli agreement, he won the longest round of applause. It was a moment of pathos and pride for many of his distant people: His presence magnified his prestige as a peacemaker and influential world's statesman; his appearance, made spectral by chemotherapy, drove home to many for the first time how severely cancer has stricken him. 

His openness about his ailment, unprecedented among Arab rulers, has touched a cord with most his 4 million subjects. But also intensified efforts to settle the sensitive issue of the succession and to quell family rivalries that threaten to divide his court. A royal council is to be established to resolve a palace intrigue that is Byzantine in its complexity. In 1965 the king, who then had no son of his own, named his younger brother, Crown Prince Hassan bin Talal 42nd-generation descendant of Prophet Mohammed, the founder of Islam, as his heir. However a line of the Kings own sons, the youngest of whom Hamze is 18, the same age of the King when sat on the throne are pushing their case.

Queen Noor, the monarch's wife, and Queen Muna, his British former wife, are said by royal sources to be manoeuvring to secure favour for their sons. The son of the late Queen Alia is favoured in other circles as he is the only son of pure Arab extraction.

A source close to the ailing monarch said the royal council's appointment would be at the top of the king's agenda when he returns from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where he has been undergoing a chemotherapy course for lymphatic cancer since falling ill after wedding anniversary celebrations at his country estate in Ascot, Berkshire, in June. 

The King's frank address to his people in the summer was a signal, an Amman based western diplomat says. The King wants his nation to continue its modernisation and liberalisation, by not following the traditional autocratic rulers example who hide truth from the nation as he prepares his people, who knew him as a king for 45 years, for a transition.

Such messages inspired those around him -- from his 51 years old brother, Crown Prince Hassan, to the loyalists who make up the government -- to concentrate their efforts on promoting the idea that transition, when it does come will be as seamless as the king intended.

In an interview with the New York Times, Prince Hassan repeatedly said that he spent 33 years as his brother's closest confidant, understudy and frequent stand-in. ''I think it would be fair if people were to make a study of three decades of public life, where we have complemented each other in rather a remarkable manner,'' he said. He mirrored his brother's aspirations for regional peace and was clearly irritated by those who criticise his manner as overly erudite and intellectual.

Educated in a British Aristocracy style, in Harrow then Oxford, Crown Prince Hassan is more at home with the polo matches than in the regional politics the most Westernised crown prince in the region.

Emblems of a more modern claim on legitimacy, the banners of both the Jordanian state and the 1916 Arab revolt against the Ottomans, which was led by his great-grandfather prince Faisal who later became the first king of modern Syria and then Iraq in 1922, flank the crown prince's desk. Indeed, the key to Jordan's stability lies in the way the Hashemite dynasty balances not just regional pressures but also domestic strains.

Despite much talk of palace intrigue between princes from the king's and the crown prince's lines of succession, the king has not publicly wavered in his commitment to his brother as his heir and thus as the future custodian of the Hashemite line, which dates back to 1201.

Last month Jordanians who spotted the prince at the wheel of his silver Mercedes in Amman applauded and saluted him. But Prince Hassan lacks the popular touch that won his brother the loyalty of the Bedouin tribes that have run the military since the Hashemite family came to power in 1920. It was the Bedouins in the army who saved Jordan during the days of Black September in 1970. When armed Palestinian groups nearly took over and the king's army had to fight them to regain control of his own capital. 

While people openly talk about the king's health the issue of succession is so sensitive that public discussion is taboo. ''It should be understood that the crown is what unites Jordan and gives it a sense of continuity,'' said a source close to the palace ''if disagreements within the royal family came out, it could destabilise the kingdom.'' And the stability of Jordan, in the words of a western ambassador in Amman, is a vital component in the western security in the region. Jordan's stabilising role in the treacherous world of Middle East politics far exceeds its size and wealth

Since the king went to may Clinic, the crown prince has been working the trans-Atlantic phones talking with his brother, and pursuing his contacts with compatriots, in an obvious effort to show his mettle as a ruler. The stability of this small country has direct consequences for all of its neighbours, from Israel to Iraq.

Western policy-makers, including the Americans called him to the negotiations at the Wye Plantation in Maryland in October to aid them during the final fraught days before the Palestinian-Israeli agreement. And so among the king's loyalists -- and some diplomats -- there is a clear desire to promote the notion that with the outcome of the king's medical treatment far from clear, the crown prince has already passed some kind of unstated initial test. ''Not to underestimate the enormous challenges, the crown prince has demonstrated that he's well grounded, he's capable of working with the key players and governing effectively,'' said a knowledgeable Western official. 

But the terms of succession and the identity of the next heir remain to be settled. The question of who would become Prince Hassan's heir once he sits on the throne, has the potential to provoke royal infighting. Under the constitution, once prince Hassan is king, his son Rashid should become crown prince. Rashid is being promoted by his mother, the Pakistani-born Princess Sarvath. King Hussein has made it clear that he would prefer one of his sons to become crown prince.

The king's complicated romantic life - has left the court in no shortage of candidates, as he had four different wives over the years. Queen Noor, an American of Lebanese extraction, is reported to be plotting, as she has great ambitions for Prince Hamze, her 18 year old British educated elder son, also a Harrow chap like his uncle. She is well placed to advance his interests. Hamze, on his mother's advice has remained at his father's bedside in Minnesota. According to informed sources, he has been discussing all political moves and issues, domestic and regional including the complicated Wye plantation talks. The queen makes sure he accompanies his parents on official visits, and he appears popular at home. When Hamze few weeks ago appeared as host of a school graduation ceremony, the entire country seemed to be talking about how he had inherited his father's charisma and looks. 

But Hamze has a strong and older rival in the shape of his half brother Prince Abdullah, the king's first male child. He was born to Toni Gardiner, King Hussein British-born second wife, who embraced Islam and took the name Queen Muna on her marriage in 1961. Although divorced in 1972, Muna has remained in Amman and is said to be pressing the 26-year-old Abdullah's case. Many palace insiders as well as some Bedouin tribe's chiefs object because he is half-British. However, as a lieutenant-general in the army Abdullah has his credentials: popular with his men, and has built an impressive power base in the armed forces. 

The 23-year-old Prince Ali makes a strong candidate. Ali was born to Alia Toukan, the king's third wife, who died in a helicopter crash in 1977. His mother came from a noble Palestinian family. 

A palace source informed the Mideast News that several years ago the king sent a letter to Crown Prince Hassan stating his wish that Ali should be the next crown prince. However, he may have changed his mind as Prince Hamze's star rose and his popularity soar while Ali developed a reputation as something of a playboy. The royal council could be a stormy affair. One source said its members would include Hassan and Hamze, Abdullah and Ali. Princes Ghazi and Talal, the two sons of the king's brother Mohammed, are also expected to become council members. ''As far as I can tell, the relationships among members of the royal family are very good,'' said a source close to the family. ''But, of course, every one of the extremely gifted sons of the king sees himself as a suitable heir.''

Indeed, throughout his regency, Hassan has been in close touch with the king, who is still seen as the real power as his land confronts crises on virtually every front. 

Since the 1990 Gulf war, Jordan's economy has been in a mess. It lost its biggest market in Iraq, but secured none of the economic benefits that Hussein sought with his 1994 peace with Israel. The peace is unpopular among many Jordanians. And a perilous economic gap has widened, further isolating a rich coterie of well-connected families from the grinding poverty of the majority. The vista is no more cheerful along Jordan's frontiers. Syria and Iraq are both uneasy and potentially meddlesome neighbours, while the Gulf Arab states that once supported Jordan financially still have not forgiven the king for siding with Saddam Hussein in the Gulf war. After the Wye interim agreements, any future Palestinian-Israeli manoeuvres toward a final settlement offer another minefield for Jordan, which is home to a staggering 1.4 million, registered Palestinian refugees. With the peace process back on track, the emerging new Palestinian entity will be a bridge between Palestinian in Israel and their brothers in Jordan, with all the destabilising effects that such movement might create.

Non of the younger princes has the experience needed to confront such challenges.

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