JEDDAH, Sept 14: Saudi Arabia and Iran pledged on Saturday to work together for stability in the region as it faces the possibility of a US-led attack on Iraq.

The two countries share borders with Iraq and have opposed a US military strike against Baghdad, saying it would destabilize the region. Riyadh has refused to allow any US strike from its territory.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who held talks with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah at the royal palace in Jeddah, said regional unity was the best way to tackle the crisis.

“I believe Iran and Saudi Arabia are two important poles in the region,” he said, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

“At the present time, when regional countries and the Islamic world are under a common threat, they (Iran and Saudi Arabia) are shoulder-to-shoulder.”

Iran and Saudi Arabia are both major oil producers and key members of OPEC. Their relations have improved since the 1997 election of the moderate Khatami.

Saudi officials said Khatami’s visit, the second by an Iranian head of state since the 1979 revolution, marked a step toward better ties.

Prince Abdullah stressed the similarities between the two nations.

“I believe that whatever happens to Iran the same is happening to Saudi Arabia and whatever happens to Saudi Arabia, the same is happening to Iran,” IRNA quoted him as saying.

Neither Khatami or Abdullah commented on oil policy ahead of an OPEC meeting in Japan in just over a week’s time to set output levels for the cartel.

Washington has branded Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, as part of “an axis of evil” and has warned it might attack Iraq to topple President Saddam Hussein.

This week, U.S. President George W. Bush demanded the United Nations impose a deadline for Iraq to obey its resolutions on disarmament, but Baghdad has rejected the unconditional return of U.N. weapons inspectors.

Khatami arrived in the kingdom on Wednesday and first performed Umra. He left for Tehran on Saturday night.—Reuters