RIYADH, March 25: Saudi Arabia has rebuffed a plea by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urging Riyadh to encourage other Arab countries to consider a US initiative for democracy in the Middle East , the Dubai-based Gulf News said on Thursday, quoting western diplomatic sources in Bahrain.

The Saudi leaders maintained that political reforms in the region should not be imposed from outside. According to a Bahrain-based Western diplomat, Mr Straw asked Riyadh to lead the Arab world in supporting Washington's Greater Middle East Initiative and to reintroduce the initiative announced by Crown Prince Abdullah at the Arab summit in Beirut two years ago.

The British official asked his Saudi hosts to put their initiative back on the agenda of next week's summit in Tunis, the diplomat said. "The Saudis didn't have a problem with the second request.

However, on the subject of the US initiative, Straw was diplomatically rebuffed. It was not an outright rejection but he was not encouraged by their response at all." British embassy officials in Manama refused to comment on the report.

The US initiative is expected to be launched at a summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in June. It is supposed to aim at encouraging democratic and economic reforms in the Arab world and other Muslim countries.

Supporters of the initiative in the US as well as in the region argue that the plan is an attempt to deprive extremists of the widely spread frustration and poverty they thrive on for support. Mr Straw's visit to Riyadh was part of a regional mini-tour that also took him to the UAE and Oman.

Agencies add: Yemen will present to the Arab summit in Tunis next week its own "roadmap" for peace in the Middle East, including elections in Iraq and an international force to protect Palestinians, a government newspaper reported.