Palestinians answer NAM unity call by quarrelling

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, May 29 (Reuters) A meeting of the world's non-aligned states called for Palestinian unity today -- but the Palestinian delegates didn't appear to be listening.

This week's meeting of the 114-member Non-Aligned Movement was meant to be a morale-booster for the Palestinian cause in the wake of a Western-led embargo on the new government, but it didn't count on a row between its two Palestinian guests.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar quit the meeting in Malaysia within 24 hours of his arrival, after the other delegate, Farrouk Kaddoumi, from the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), questioned his credentials.

''I am the minister of foreign affairs of the state of Palestine, he is only from the local government,'' Kaddoumi told reporters at the meeting today.

''He has no right in diplomacy. So this is the problem.'' Zahar belongs to the militant group Hamas, which defeated the PLO's main Fatah faction in parliamentary elections in January.

Hamas and Fatah are engaged in an intensifying power struggle that has raised fears of civil war.

The 1993 Oslo peace accords with Israel gave the PLO, and not the Palestinian Authority government, the right to conduct external relations and have embassies, which has caused frequent tensions between the two entities.

But Hamas does not recognise the Oslo agreements, nor is it a member of the PLO. Its refusal to recognise Israel and renounce violence has triggered the aid boycott.

Zahar could not be reached for comment today, but the meeting's host, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, confirmed that he had pulled out of the talks.

''We have no problem if both of them want to be present but he (Zahar) considers this as a bilateral visit. So we accept that,'' Syed Hamid told reporters.

''We have no problem in including the (Palestinian) government for the meeting but they have decided not to come (to the meeting) but make the visit a bilateral visit.'' REUTERS SHB VC1540