Doha/Cairo - Egyptian and Qatari diplomats on Saturday shrugged off the decision of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to absent himself from the annual Arab League summit in Doha scheduled for Monday.

The announcement that Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit made in Cairo early Saturday to declare Mubarak's decision to delegate Moufid Shehab, a cabinet minister, to head the Egyptian delegation to the summit was simply, in both capitals, expected.

Both countries, among other Arab states, have been scuffling over positions taken during Israel's 22-day offensive on the Hamas- ruled Gaza Strip in December.

While Syria and Qatar, as part of the so-called extremist camp, back the Islamist group Hamas, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as one of the so-called moderates have sided with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah group.

The main bone of contention, analysts believe, surfaced when Qatar insisted on convening an emergency summit conference in support of Gaza in late January, which Egypt and Saudi Arabia boycotted. The summit was few days ahead of another scheduled economic summit in Kuwait.

"Egypt considered Qatar's call for the summit as challenging to its regional power and would not forgive Doha for that," political analyst Ayman El-Amir told the German Press Agency dpa.

During a four-nation summit in Riyadh which included heads of state of Egypt, Kuwait and Syria, Cairo insisted that Qatar be excluded.

Meanwhile, Qatari diplomats interviewed by dpa said that they have tried to be "accommodating" to secure the participation of President Mubarak and other Arab leaders, who subscribe to the anti-Iran and anti-Hamas/Hezbollah camp to which Qatar does not subscribe.

Upon Saudi advice and intervention, and contrary to earlier plans, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will not be present at the Arab summit in Doha.

Still, Egyptian diplomats said that was not enough. Qatar, they added, knew that it had to meet three requirements for Mubarak to be present at Doha on Monday, even if only for the opening session.

The first was to push Hamas to agree to a Cairo-sponsored Palestinian national reconciliation deal.

The second to suspend what Egypt qualifies as "an aggressive media war that Qatar is launching against Egypt through al-Jazeera satellite channel."

The third is to terminate the support that Egypt claims Qatar is giving to opposition figures inside Egypt including Ayman Nour - recently released from jail, and Egyptian-American activist Saad- Eddin Ibrahim.

A Saudi mediation had since failed to push Qatar to acknowledge the Egyptian demands. Qatari officials argue that Egypt is "taking things too far".

The tension between Egypt and Qatar is promising to have serious repercussions on the more-than 10,000 Egyptian labourers who make their living in Qatar and send back home foreign currency to Egypt.

Drivers, cleaners and other blue collars have complained that Cairo's diplomatic stances have prompted Qatari employers to terminate contracts. This, they added, means that they would getting back to Cairo to join the widening unemployed mass.

In addition to undermining the interests of its labourers and other economic relations with Qatar, the Egyptian decision to reduce the level of the representation to the Arab summit in Doha is triggering other complications.

"Qatar is going to be the chair of the Arab summit for a year and it could give Egypt a hard time in all Arab League meetings. It will also not help in healing Arab divisions" El-Amir told dpa.

Qatar could also use its influence over Hamas to further delay the conclusion of a national reconciliation deal that Egypt is wishing to sponsor.

And worst of all, from the Egyptian perspective, al-Jazeera could unleash an endless series of programmes to smear Egyptian diplomacy.

For its part, Egypt could use its diplomatic clout in the Arab anti-Iran and anti-Hamas/Hezbollah camp to give Qatar a hard diplomatic time.

Foreign Minister Aboul-Gheit had gloated over what he qualified as Egypt's success in scuppering the emergency Arab summit that Qatar wanted to host last January to debate the Israeli aggression over Gaza. Egyptian diplomats speaking to dpa on Saturday said that Egypt "had much more where that came from."

In the words of one Egyptian diplomat, "Egypt convinced several Arab leaders to boycott the Doha summit (this week)".

Arab diplomats in Doha say they hoped a determined Saudi commitment to contain the Qatari-Egyptian tension would avert this confrontation. But, they acknowledge that this is not an easy job.

"The differences are not that big but the sensitivities are very high and it is becoming personal and this is what is difficult to beat," said one Arab diplomat in Qatar, who asked for his name to be withheld.

Mubarak had last year also delegated Shehab to chair the Egyptian delegation to the Damascus summit - also over similar disagreements with Syria .

"Egypt is making the wrong calculations. It is isolating itself and it wants us to deal with it as the uncontested Arab leader at the same time. These two things, I am afraid, are mutually exclusive," commented a Syrian diplomat in Qatar on condition of anonymity.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, in Doha, said that "a genuine reconciliation that goes beyond ice-breaking handshakes would take time and effort to deliver." (dpa)