Hamas refuses to join probe into Jordan plot

AMMAN, May 7 (Reuters) The Hamas-led Palestinian government has refused to join a team heading to Amman this week to look into charges Hamas militants smuggled arms into Jordan and were close to staging attacks, officials today said.

They said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas informed Jordan that the government had turned down his request to join a committee he set up to examine with senior Jordanian officials the evidence they say backs up their charges.

Jordan said last month that rocket launchers, detonators and explosives seized from a secret Hamas arms cache in the kingdom had been smuggled from Syria, where the Palestinian militant groups' exiled leadership is based.

A week later it said a group of Hamas activists arrested by its security forces were close to staging attacks on senior Jordanian officials on orders from its Syrian-based leadership.

''President Abbas showed in the letter that the Palestinian government ... had expressed its lack of desire to participate in this delegation,'' government spokesperson Nasser Joudeh was quoted as telling reporters.

Joudeh said the Hamas-led government told Abbas that since Amman had accused its Syrian based-leadership of masterminding the smuggling racket it was more appropriate that Jordan talked directly with them rather than its Gaza-based leadership.

Hamas has repeatedly denied accusations its members were involved in arms smuggling to Jordan from Syria, and said they would not join a committee to investigate the case.

''As far as we are concerned, this incident never happened.

Therefore, we decided against going,'' said a Hamas government official in the Gaza Strip, asking not to be named.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar repeated his denial of Hamas involvement today to reporters, saying ''we will not interfere in the security of Jordan... We are fully convinced we had nothing to do with this.'' The charges have brought ties to the lowest point since Jordan expelled leaders of Hamas in 1999 for alleged illegal activities.

After the arms cache discovery, Jordan cancelled a planned visit by Zahar, which would have been the first by a Hamas leader since 1999.

Hamas denied the charges and hinted that pro-US ally Amman was succumbing to US-led pressures to isolate the movement.

The group has no track record of attacks outside the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel.

Joudeh said ongoing investigations into the arms cache and the plot to attack undisclosed targets in Jordan were close to completion.

Hamas has many supporters in Palestinian camps in Jordan, which hosts the largest number of refugees outside the West Bank and Gaza.

REUTERS OM PM1835