AMMAN: A 20-year-old Pakistani farmer was charged on Wednesday with killing his wife and her teenage "lover" when he found them together at his house in Jordan, a judicial official said.

"He shot dead his 18-year-old wife and her lover, who was 17, on Tuesday, in the Jordan Valley," where the unnamed suspect worked on a farm, the official told AFP.

"He has confessed, saying he killed them when he came to his house and saw them together in a suspicious situation. He was charged with premeditated murder."

Murder is punishable by death in Jordan but, in so-called "honour killings," courts can commute or reduce sentences.

Between 15 and 20 women die in such murders each year in the Arab kingdom. AGENCIES