told the BBC.

The researchers say the study, released on Thursday, is one of the first to attempt to gauge cultural attitudes to honour killings in the region.

The United Nations estimates that around 5,000 women are killed annually in honour-related crimes.

Women's advocacy groups, however, suspect that more than 20,000 women are killed worldwide each year.

'Shocked'

Researchers asked the teenagers to react to different situations in which they thought it may be justified to kill a person.

In total, 33.4% of all respondents either "agreed" or "strongly agreed" with situations depicting honour killings.

Almost half of the male respondents and one in five female respondents advocated killing women or girls if they committed adultery.

"When we first examined the data, we were in fact shocked about the high proportion of adolescents who said thatthey find honour killings acceptable," said Professor Eisner, who directs Cambridge University's Violence Research Centre.

The study suggests that attitudes towards honour killings were connected to tribal traditions that place emphasis on female virtue and chastity, rather than on religion.

The researchers did not collect data outside the capital.

"We would expect that in the more rural and traditional parts of Jordan, support for honour killings would be even higher," said Professor Eisner.

According to recent estimates by the non-governmental National Council of Family Affairs in Jordan, up to 50 women and girls were killed in the last 13 years.

But the real figure is likely to be far higher, since most honour killings go unreported.

Jordan's Queen Rania champions women's issues in the kingdom, and has long campaigned against honour killings.