Quartet expected to cancel Cairo meeting

CAIRO, June 19 (Reuters) The international Quartet of West Asia mediators will probably postpone or cancel a meeting planned for Cairo next week, diplomatic sources said today.

''Ninety per cent it's not going to happen,'' said one diplomatic source, who asked not to be named.

''We're not planning for a visit,'' added a diplomat from one of the Quartet's component entities - the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

The meeting, scheduled for June 26 and 27, has been in doubt since the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas took control of Gaza last week in defiance of the Quartet's wishes.

The Quartet has refused to deal with Hamas, which won parliamentary elections in 2006, but has embraced the emergency government formed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

''It's up in the air so let's see what happens out there (in the Palestinian territories),'' the diplomat added.

The four parties to the Quartet have not made a formal announcement of the cancellation, the diplomats said.

REUTERS JK RAI1908