Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Saud Al-Faisal met yesterday at the White House with U.S. President George W. Bush. The meeting was attended by Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

In a press statement afterwards, Prince Saud said he had conveyed messages to President Bush from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd bin Abdulaziz, and from the conference of regional Arab foreign ministers recently held in Turkey. He reiterated Saudi Arabia's desire to reach a peaceful settlement in the Iraqi crisis, adding that the Kingdom is confident that President Bush is working in this direction. Prince Saud went on to urge the Iraqi government to work closely and positively with the UN inspectors in order to avoid the menace of war. He denied, however, that he had reviewed with President Bush any plan for persuading Saddam Hussein to abdicate and go into voluntary exile. What they had discussed, he said, was the Arab world's concern about the expected repercussions in the event of the collapse of Iraq and the dangers that would be caused by its partition. He confirmed that the initiative on Iraq proposed by Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz calls for giving the Arab countries more time to work for a peaceful settlement of the crisis even if the UN Security Council approves resorting to military force for the disarmament of Iraq.

Concerning the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Prince Saud praised the U.S. President's statements on the importance of exerting efforts for its settlement.