Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal on Sunday criticised US-led calls for reform in the Middle East and said Arab countries could tackle their problems by themselves.
He was speaking just two days after talks in Riyadh with US Secretary of State, Colin Powell.
The US proposals "include clear accusations against the Arab people and their governments that they are ignorant of their own affairs", the official Saudi Press Agency quoted the prince as saying in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
"Those behind these plans ignore the fact that our Arab people have cultures rooted deep in history and that we are able to handle our own affairs," he said.
Powell's visit to Riyadh was overshadowed by Washington's criticism of the arrest of at least 10 pro-reform activists in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has already promised municipal elections later this year, but the conservative Muslim kingdom says its cautious programme of political change will not be influenced by outside pressure.
Last week it rejected US criticism of its arrest of the reformists, saying the detentions were an internal affair. Several of the detainees have been released.
Prince Saud said calls for Arabs to join the modern world were being made "as if for all these years we had not been doing anything and had just been waiting for direction from outside".
He said any foreign help should be concentrated towards settling the Palestinian-Israel conflict and a "genuine economic partnership" with the Arab world.
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