Jordan's King Abdullah donned a false beard, white robe and red and white checked headdress and went walkabout this week, posing as a television journalist.

The young king, just six months on the throne, followed in the footsteps of his father, the late King Hussein, who occasionally left his palaces to tread the streets of the kingdom, inspired by a contemporary of Charlemagne, the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, who ruled during the golden age of the Arab empire. Harun prowled in a beggar's cloak.

King Abdullah and the head of the palace press centre, equipped with a video camera, went to the industrial town of Zarka, where they visited the kingdom's free trade zone and interviewed investors, producers and customers. The king's aim was to investigate the overstaffed, inefficient bureaucracy. He got a tapeful of complaints from traders obstructed by customs procedures.

One Dubai businessman reportedly asked the king: "How can an export application take four days to process when there are 40 customs officials at 40 windows"?

While his father would have been quickly recognised by his distinctively deep voice, Abdullah kept the questions flowing for five hours and was forced to reveal his identity only because he was caught conducting interviews without a permit, in breach of the highly controversial press law.

This was the first time King Abdullah made a surprise visit in disguise. He had previously turned up at hospitals, border crossings and other public offices to check out if they were functioning properly. Before he was named heir to the throne last February, Abdullah, an army officer, circulated freely and was known as a bon viveur.

While ordinary Jordanians welcome the king's personal interventions, advocates of reform say he has not been able to implement urgently needed restructuring because the well entrenched conservative establishment does not want to lose its privileges.

"Jordan's liberals are more than ever under attack because the king himself seeks reform", a leading campaigner said. "The king knows the country cannot go anywhere unless we clean up our act. The energies of the people are crippled by the way the state manages the affairs of the country."

In spite of the resistance of the establishment, the king is making some headway towards meeting the requirements of the World Bank and IMF for urgently needed development aid. The growth rate has slowed to 2 per cent, unemployment is at 30 per cent. At least one-third of the populace lives below the poverty line.

King Abdullah has also helped Jordanian women win an important legal victory by securing the abrogation of a law which either excuses or imposes sentences of three months to a year on men who kill allegedly adulterous female relatives to defend the "honour" of the family.

In Jordan there is a mandatory death penalty or a life sentence for first-degree murder. In 1997 at least 25 women were victims of "honour crimes", while women who murdered errant or abusive husbands were given maximum punishment.

The practice of dealing leniently with men who commit "crimes of honour" is widespread throughout the Mediterranean and the Arab world. Jordan is one of the first Arab countries to ban it.

Parliament is now debating a law which requires women to obtain written permission from a senior male relative before they can travel abroad, another discriminatory practice common in Arab countries.

Women's groups are also campaigning for a quota of seats in parliament, from which they have been effectively excluded. The king's interest in women's issues was fed by his father, who abhorred the idea of "crimes of honour", by his British mother, Princess Muna, and by his well-educated Palestinian wife, Queen Rania. While tackling sensitive domestic issues, the king has carved out a peacemaking role for himself. He first reconciled with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad.

Next he cemented bilateral relations by stepping up train services between Amman and Damascus and initiating construction of a duty-free industrial zone. Then, following a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, on the sidelines of the funeral of King Hassan II of Morocco, King Abdullah paid an unexpected visit to Damascus on Monday for consultations with the Syrian leader in an effort to restart negotiations between the two sides suspended since 1996.

Abdullah II is doing very well for a man who never expected to be king.