AMMAN, April 19: Relations between Jordan and the Hamas-led Palestinian government took a sharp turn for the worse on Wednesday when Amman scrapped a visit by the new foreign minister after a Hamas arms cache was discovered.

Mahmud Al-Zahar had been due in Amman on Wednesday as part of a regional tour to raise funds for the Palestinian Authority, which is facing a financial crisis after a cut in vital western funding.

But Jordanian government spokesman Nasser Jawdeh said the visit was postponed until further notice ‘following the discovery of weapons, explosives and rockets in the hands of a Hamas group in Jordan’.

One official said the cell might have been planning ‘terrorist activities’ in Jordan, a close US ally that is also only the second Arab country after Egypt to have signed a peace treaty with Israel.

The postponement was announced late on Tuesday, just a day after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed nine people in an attack in Tel Aviv that Israel blamed on the newly installed Hamas government and was condemned by Jordan.

The decision was swiftly denounced by Hamas, which won a landslide election victory in January but is battling international isolation and a funding crisis with outstanding debts of 1.3 billion dollars.

“We reject and condemn these accusations against Hamas by the Jordanian government spokesman and confirm this is false,” said Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas.

Zahar is a leading hardline member of Hamas. He is currently in Saudi Arabia on the latest stop in his fund-raising tour, which has resulted in pledges of aid from Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.—AFP