About 20,000 Syrians have fled to neighbouring Jordan in the past two months, a prominent local charity said on Sunday, urging wealthy Arab countries to help the refugees.

"Around 20,000 Syrian refugees have fled to Jordan in April and March," Zayed Hammad, head of the Ketab and Sunna Society, told AFP. "The society is now taking care of 40,000 Syrian refugees, most of them in Amman."

Hammad said Libyan charities had sent 14 trucks laden with supplies to help his organisation provide aid to the Syrians.

"We will start Monday distributing these supplies. Donors should help us deal with this responsibility. Wealthy Arab countries with money and oil should help their Syrian brothers."

The United States said Thursday it was providing $40 million in humanitarian aid to help 65,070 Syrian refugees who have fled to neighbouring states due to the crackdown by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime on a 14-month uprising against his rule.

According to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 15,999 Syrian refugees are registered in Jordan.

But Amman says more than 100,000 Syrians have sought refuge in the kingdom since the March 2011 outbreak of the uprising, in which monitors say more than 12,000 people, the majority of them civilians, have died.

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