The Palestinian government's Hamas foreign minister walked out of a Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) conference in Malaysia on Sunday after the arrival of the rival Fatah faction's leader as head of the delegation, his office said. Mahmud al-Zahar, the head of Hamas in its Gaza Strip stronghold, quit the delegation in Kuala Lumpur on the eve of the opening of the summit after Faruq Qaddumi arrived in the Malaysian capital. "Dr Zahar will not participate in the conference in Kuala Lumpur on Monday," his office said. "He will not take part in the activities of the conference after the surprise arrival of Qaddumi." The move comes amid a fierce power battle between Hamas and Fatah, the party which dominated Palestinian politics until losing a January parliamentary election. Qaddumi is based in Tunis, having refused to return to the Palestinian territories along with the rest of the exiled leadership in 1994. He also doubles up as head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) politburo, a position he has previously used to pull rank on representatives of the Palestinian Authority government. Qaddumi was billed by organisers of NAM as Foreign Minister of the State of Palestine.