DUBAI, Jan 19: Afghanistan’s interim prime minister Hamid Karzai discussed on Saturday with Saudi leaders the reopening of embassies in both countries and economic help for the reconstruction of his country.

Karzai held talks with Saudi King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.

The contribution of Saudi Arabia to the reconstruction was high on the agenda in the talks.

Saudi leaders were expected to raise during their meetings with Karzai the fate of some 200 Saudi citizens in Afghanistan.

Saudi Arabia wants custody of the Saudis held in Afghanistan and said they would be charged in the kingdom if they were found to have had links with Osama bin Laden.

Karzai arrived late on Friday in Jeddah and before travelling to Riyadh, performed the umrah.

He is accompanied by eight members of his cabinet, including Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.

The Saudi newspaper Arab News quoted an Afghan diplomat in the kingdom as saying Karzai “chose Saudi Arabia as his first foreign destination in order to underscore the importance the Afghan leadership attaches to ties with the kingdom”.

The diplomat said talks would focus on “ways of boosting bilateral ties in various fields, the situation in Afghanistan and the Islamic world, and the Afghan government’s plans to rebuild the country after two decades of war”.

“We hope Saudi Arabia, which helped the Afghan people during the jihad against Soviet occupation in the 1980s, will keep up its aid during the reconstruction of Afghanistan,” he added.

Karzai’s trip to Saudi Arabia precedes the Jan 21-22 ministerial conference in Tokyo of more than 50 donor countries, among them also Saudi Arabia, to help rebuild Afghanistan.

“We expect Saudi Arabia, much as it helped Afghanistan in other times, to help the Afghan people rebuild their country,” Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who is accompanying Karzai, told AFP.

It is “a sign of respect and of the importance ... which we (attach to ties with) Saudi Arabia, and I think relations will be expanded in all aspects,” he added.

The Afghan leader performed the umrah (lesser pilgrimage) in the holy city of Mecca before travelling to Riyadh.

Riyadh will take part in a ministerial conference in Tokyo next Monday and Tuesday of more than 50 donor countries to draw up plans to rebuild Afghanistan after the US-led military campaign.

Karzai, who took over last month as the head of a six-month transition government after US forces routed the Taliban, was due to fly from Saudi Arabia to Japan.

Karzai will then hold talks with Chinese officials and head to Washington for a January 28 meeting with President George W. Bush.—dpa/AFP