Jordan canceled yesterday the scheduled visit of the new Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, a member of Hamas. The move came after the government found Hamas activists had smuggled weapons and explosives into the country with the intention of carrying out terror activities, Jordan announced.

A Jordanian government spokesman said security forces had seized rocket launchers and other weapons from a Hamas arms cache.

This is the second time since Hamas rose to power that Jordan has canceled a planned visit by one of its senior figures. Some two weeks after the elections Jordan refused to receive a delegation headed by Khaled Meshal, Hamas' political leader. Meshal had been expelled from Jordan in 1999, and Jordan said it would receive a delegation only if it were headed by someone other than Meshal.

Hamas reacted sharply to Jordan's move, denying the allegations and accusing the Hashemite kingdom of surrendering to Israeli and American pressure following the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv three days ago.

Hamas said the trumped-up accusations regarding militants and arms smuggling were nothing but incitement against Hamas and its principles.

"These arguments are excuses for Jordan's last minute withdrawal from receiving Zahar following the attack in Tel Aviv and the Israeli-American threats on the Palestinian government," the Hamas statement said.

"Hamas has never targeted Jordan, and it has never targeted Islamic nor Arab countries or any other country in the world," the statement said, adding that the group had always limited its battle to "the Zionist enemy."

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