Montgomery will play a US Tour event instead

Tournament organisers are now waiting to hear if Tiger Woods and Ernie Els follow suit.

Montgomerie has also withdrawn from the following week's Qatar Masters.

He will appear on the US Tour instead next week after being given an invitation to play in the Ford Championship in Miami.

The season has not begun well for the Scotsman, who was so outstanding in last September's Ryder Cup at The Belfry.

He missed the half-way cut in last week's Nissan Open in Los Angeles and suffered a first-round defeat to German Alex Cejka in the Accenture world match play championship.

Els expressed his concern about playing in the United Arab Emirates wihen war in nearby Iraq was a distinct possibility.

"I would love to go - it's one of my favourite events," said the world number two, who won at the Emirates club for the second time last year.

"But my only scare is if I get there and it kicks off. How do you get out?

"We've spoken to the people over there and they said come, but at the end of last week there was some (British) government advice about not going to Qatar.

"What's the big difference between Qatar and Dubai?"

Els said he would have more conversations and watch for any developments before making his final decision.

Woods remains a doubtful starter as well and says his decision will come "in the next couple of days".

Ken Schofield, executive director of the European tour, said last night that preparations for both tournaments were continuing.