Amman - Jordan's King Abdullah II on Monday issued a decree appointing General Mohammad Rakkad as new head of the General Intelligence Department (GID), one of the country's most influential posts, according to a royal court statement.

Rakkad replaced General Mohammad Dahabi, who resigned his post earlier in the day, a royal court statement said.

Dahabi came to the limelight over the past couple of months after leading a Jordanian team to a series of meetings with member of Hamas' politburo Mohammad Nazal, who is based in Damascus.

It was the first high-level encounter between the Jordanian government and the hard-line Palestinian faction since 1999, when the Amman authorities closed Hamas' bureau in Jordan and deported its staffers including Khalid Mashaal, who later became the group's politburo chief. (dpa)