Saudi Arabia denied on Tuesday a report that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently held a meeting with a senior Saudi royal, calling the story fabricated.

A flurry of conflicting confirmations and denials have been issued from the PM's office over the story which originally appeared in the Yedioth Aharonoth newspaper, and was later denied by Olmert on the newspaper's website.

"A foreign ministry source said there is absolutely no truth to Israeli and Qatari media reports on contacts between Saudi and Israeli officials," the official news agency SPA said.

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"The source said the news is completely fabricated and that the kingdom is carrying out its nationalist role transparently and does not have declared and undeclared policies," it said.

Israel and Saudi Arabia have no diplomatic relations, but
Israel's ally the United States has long sought to prod Arab states into establishing contacts.

Egypt and Jordan have signed peace treaties with Israel
while Qatar and some other states have low-level relations.

Saudi Arabia was the driving force behind a 2002 Arab peace proposal that calls for full diplomatic relations between Arab states and Israel and a Palestinian state in all the lands Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.