Israel's Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, has cancelled plans to attend a UN meeting in Qatar because of the expected presence of Hamas.
Israel has low-level ties with Qatar, and Ms Livni's invitation to a United Nations convention on democracy would have been the first visit by a leading Israeli government minister to the Gulf state in a decade.
Israeli radio reported that Ms Livni called off the trip after learning that legislators from Hamas, the Palestinian ruling party, would also attend the convention.
