Six tourists, including four Lebanese, were wounded after a gunman opened fire on their bus in Jordan, a government spokesman said.

The wounded, which also included a Palestinian and a Jordanian, had not been seriously hurt and received treatment, said government spokesman and Information Minister Nasser Jawdeh.

The alleged attacker tried to commit suicide, Jawdeh added.

"He was seriously wounded and is receiving treatment," he said.

Witnesses told AFP that an individual began shooting at the bus near Amman's Roman amphitheatre in the city center at around 11:00 pm (2000 GMT) Wednesday.

They said the attacker did not have a beard and did not appear to be an Islamic militant. He shot himself in the head when police tried to arrest him.

After the attack, police immediately sealed off the area.

Police also stopped journalists from approaching the al-Bashir hospital in the east of the city, where the wounded were being treated.

Jawdeh insisted that the attack had been an isolated incident and played down any suggestion of a political element.

At the time of the attack, tourists were arriving to attend an evening of music at the amphitheatre, said witnesses.

The event was part of the Festival of Jordan, which has been surrounded by controversy.

A group of 14 Jordanian trade unions called for Arab and Jordanian singers to boycott the festival, saying the French company Publicis that organized it had also worked on the celebrations for Israel's 60th anniversary earlier this year.

Both Publicis and the Jordanian government have denied the accusation.

It is the fourth attack on tourists in Jordan in the last two years.

In September 2006, a Briton was killed and five other tourists wounded in an attack near the Roman amphitheatre, and three months later a Dutch tourist was wounded.

In March 2008 a German tourist was wounded in an attack while he was walking in the center of Amman.(AFP)