US defence chief seeks Saudi support on Iran

RIYADH (AFP) - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates touched down in Saudi Arabia angling for support from the oil-rich kingdom in confronting Iran's suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Gates, who flew into Riyadh from Kabul, was also expected to discuss Washington's new strategy for taming sectarian bloodshed and chaos in Iraq when he sees King Abdullah for face-to-face talks.

He is the first Pentagon chief to visit Saudi Arabia -- a key US ally in the Gulf region and wider Middle East -- since his predecessor Donald Rumsfeld came in April 2003, soon after the US-led invasion of Iraq.

King Abdullah received Gates at a desert camp at Rawdhat Khuraim, 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Riyadh, together with Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, who is also defense minister.

Prince Meqrin bin Abdul Aziz, who heads the Saudi intelligence services, was also present, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported. No other details of the talks were disclosed.

Speaking to reporters travelling with him, Gates indicated that Washington was counting on Riyadh's support in addressing hot-button issues in the region, starting with Iran's nuclear programme.

"I think we can always use Saudi cooperation on these issues in the Gulf region," said Gates when asked if Washington was seeking Riyadh's support to check Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only, has defied UN Security Council demands to halt its uranium enrichment work -- prompting the world body to impose limited sanctions.

"I think above all, I will be interested in hearing the king's views in these issues, and how the king sees the situation in the region," said Gates, who replaced Rumsfeld as defence secretary a month ago.

"His perspective on these things is specially what I'm interested in."

Gates, former head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has moved to raise the US military's profile in the Gulf since his appointment by US President George W. Bush.

A second US aircraft carrier battlegroup has been ordered to the Gulf region -- the first time the United States has had so much seagoing muscle in the vicinity since the Iraq invasion.

Bush has meanwhile ordered the deployment of a Patriot missile defense battalion to the region to protect against any possible Iranian ballistic missile threat.

The moves were announced last week as part of the new US strategy for Iraq that will see 21,500 additional troops being deployed, the lion's share of them going to Baghdad to help Iraqi forces quell rampant sectarian bloodshed.

Prior to leaving Afghanistan earlier Wednesday, Gates said that US commanders there had asked for more troops for Afghanistan as well.

The new US strategy calls for placing Iraq within a regional context, and Gates's brief stop in Saudi Arabia was aimed at re-engaging important US allies in the region.

He said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government "needs, I think, help from other governments in terms of its influence and authority at home."

"I think anything that governments within the region and outside the region can do, particularly on the economic reconstruction and development side in Iraq, would be immensely helpful to the Maliki government and to the Iraqi people," he said.

Saudi Arabia is the fourth stop in a trip that has taken Gates -- who visited Iraq in December -- to London, NATO headquarters in Brussels, and Kabul.