(AMMAN) - A group of European lawmakers urged EU countries on Tuesday to accept more asylum seekers from conflict-torn Iraq, during a visit to Jordan, which hosts hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees.

A European Parliament delegation "urges EU member states to take greater responsibility and consider expanding their quotas for resettlement of these unfortunate people," said a European Commission statement in Amman.

Sweden has taken in more than half of all Iraqi asylum seekers to Europe. It offered shelter to 9,065 people last year, and currently has at least 80,000.

According to the UN refugee agency, some two million people are displaced inside Iraq and that 1.4 million have found their way to Syria while more than half a million are in Jordan.

The seven-member delegation, headed by Beatrice Patrie of the Party of European Socialists, "is fully aware of the impact of the large influx of Iraqis into Jordan on the infrastructure and the society," said the statement.

It called on Jordan "to provide greater certainty to their Iraqi guests."

The tiny desert kingdom has estimated the costs of sheltering between 500,000 and 750,000 Iraqi refugees over the past three years at more than two billion dollars,

"Iraqi refugees is a regional issue not a European one ... We can put political pressure and also support Jordan in order to offer them decent living conditions," Jamila Madeira of the European People's Party and European Democrats group told a news conference in Amman.

In December, the European Union granted 26.7 million euros (39.7 million dollars) to help Jordan provide schooling for thousands of Iraqi refugees.

The European MPs, due to conclude their visit on Friday, have met with senior officials, including Prime Minister Nader Dahabi, Lower House Speaker Abdul Hadi Majali and Senate President Zeid Rifai.

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