RIYADH -- Saudi Arabia announced Sunday that it was recalling its ambassador to the neighboring Persian Gulf state of Qatar, amid a worsening row over the ground-breaking Arabic satellite television station Al-Jazeera.

Saudi ambassador in Doha Hamad al-Tuwaimi told AFP he was still waiting for Foreign Ministry confirmation of the recall, which he had learnt of from the official Saudi press agency.

The news agency did not elaborate on the reasons for the decision.

But it came amid mounting official anger here over the unusually free rein for the Arab world which the Qatari authorities have given the Doha-based Al-Jazeera to criticize regional governments, including Saudi Arabia.

In July, Riyadh newspapers warned Qatar to "reconsider its policies", charging that the widely watched television station risked becoming a tool of anti-Arab interests.

The Saudi government was particularly offended by a debate carried live by Al-Jazeera on June 25 in which participants criticized Crown Prince Abdullah's Middle East peace initiative, accusing Riyadh of having "betrayed the Palestinian cause".

The announcement of the recall coincided with a reception at the Qatari Embassy here marking the tiny gas-rich Emirate's National Day.

Several Saudi officials who had already arrived at the party left as soon as they learnt of the SPA statement, diplomatic sources here said.

Riyadh Deputy Governor Prince Sattam bin Abdel Aziz, who had been on the official guest list, never turned up at all.

No direct reaction to the recall or the resulting snub was immediately forthcoming from Doha.

But the Qatari Foreign Ministry issued a statement treating a Riyadh car blast in which one person was killed earlier Sunday as an act of "terrorism".

The communique directly contradicted Saudi Arabia's longstanding insistence that a series of bombings targeting Western nationals in the kingdom in recent years have been the result of a turf war between illicit alcohol smugglers.

"Such acts are not in accordance with the principles of the Muslim religion and humanitarian and moral values," said the ministry statement carried by the official QNA news agency. "Qatar has taken a firm position condemning terrorism in all its forms and whatever its pretexts."

It was not immediately clear whether the person killed in Sunday's blast was a Westerner, although the car targeted belonged to a German national.

SPA said Saudi authorities were still investigating the circumstances of the explosion.

Three Britons have been killed in similar explosions in Saudi Arabia, in November 2000, March 2001 and June this year.