Australia has said it will expel an official from the Israeli embassy, after finding that Israel was behind fake Australian passports linked to the killing of a Hamas operative.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Australia remained a 'firm friend' of Israel but that no government could tolerate the abuse of its passports.
'The government has asked that a member of the Israeli embassy in Canberra be withdrawn from Australia,' Mr Smith told parliament, without identifying the official.
'I have asked that the withdrawal be effected within a week.'
An investigation into how four Australian passports were used by the team that carried out the January killing of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a luxury Dubai hotel found the documents were forgeries, Mr Smith said.
He said the high quality of the forged passports pointed to the involvement of a state intelligence service.
'These investigations and advice have left the government in no doubt that Israel was responsible for the abuse and counterfeiting of these passports,' he said.
The Israeli foreign ministry expressed disappointment.
'We are sorry for the Australian step, which is not in line with the nature and importance of the relationship' between the two nations, said foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmore.
Suspects in the killing of Mr Mabhouh also used the identities of five Irish, 12 Britons, as well as those of people from France and Germany.
In March, Britain kicked out an Israeli diplomat over the 'intolerable' use of fake British passports also used in the killing.
The British government declined to specify the position of the expelled diplomat, but local media reported the individual was a senior operative in Israel's Mossad agency.
Mossad has been widely blamed for the killing of the Hamas operative, but Israel maintains there is no proof for this claim.
Last week, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin received a final report into the use of false Irish passports in the Dubai assassination.
Minister Martin told the Dáil the report by the Irish Passport Service will be made public in 'a couple of weeks'. He said it must first go to Cabinet.
In February, Mr Martin said his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Leiberman had told him he had no information about Israeli involvement in the killing of the Palestinian official.
