King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia conveyed that message to Vice-President Dick Cheney two weeks ago during Cheney’s whirlwind visit to Riyadh, the officials said. During the visit, King Abdullah also expressed strong opposition to diplomatic talks between the United States and Iran, and pushed for Washington to encourage the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, senior Bush administration officials said.

The Saudi warning reflects fears among America’s Sunni Arab allies about Iran’s rising influence in Iraq, coupled with Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. King Abdullah II of Jordan has also expressed concern about rising Shia influence, and about the prospect that the Shia-dominated government would use Iraqi troops against the Sunni population.

A senior Bush administration official said on Tuesday that part of the administration’s review of Iraq policy involved the question of how to harness a coalition of moderate Iraqi Sunnis with centrist Shia to back the Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

The Saudis have argued strenuously against an American pullout from Iraq, citing fears that Iraq’s minority Sunni Arab population would be massacred. Those fears, United States officials said, have become more pronounced as a growing chorus in Washington has advocated a draw-down of American troops in Iraq, coupled with diplomatic outreach to Iran, which is largely Shia.

“It’s a hypothetical situation, and we’d work hard to avoid such a structure,” one Arab diplomat in Washington said. But, he added, “If things become so bad in Iraq, like an ethnic cleansing, we will feel we are pulled into the war.”

The Bush administration is also working on a way to form a coalition of Sunni Arab nations and a moderate Shia government in Iraq, along with the US and Europe, to stand against “Iran, Syria and the terrorists,” another senior administration official said.

Until now Saudi officials have promised their counterparts in the US that they would refrain from aiding Iraq’s Sunni insurgency. But that pledge holds only as long as the US remains in Iraq.

The Saudis have been wary of supporting Sunnis in Iraq because their insurgency there has been led by extremists of Al-Qaeda, who are opposed to the kingdom’s monarchy. But if Iraq’s sectarian war worsened, the Saudis would line up with Sunni tribal leaders.

The Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal, who told his staff on Monday that he was resigning his post, recently fired Nawaf Obaid, a consultant who wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post two weeks ago contending that “one of the first consequences” of an American pullout of Iraq would “be massive Saudi intervention to stop Iranian-backed Shiite militias from butchering Iraqi Sunnis.”

Obaid also suggested that Saudi Arabia could cut world oil prices in half by raising its production, a move that he said “would be devastating to Iran, which is facing economic difficulties even with today’s high oil prices.” The Saudi government disavowed Obaid’s column, and Prince Turki cancelled his contract.

But Arab diplomats said on Tuesday that Obaid’s column reflected the view of the Saudi government, which has made clear its opposition to an American pullout from Iraq. Prince Turki said Saudi Arabia did not want Iraq to fracture along ethnic or religious lines. On Monday a group of prominent Saudi clerics called on Sunni Muslims around the world to mobilise against Shiites in Iraq. The statement called the “murder, torture and displacement of Sunnis” an “outrage”.

Saudi ambassador to US abruptly resigns, leaves

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington, Prince Turki al-Faisal, abruptly resigned and flew out of the United States after only 15 months in the post, Saudi sources said. A source close to Prince Turki in the Saudi capital confirmed the ambassador’s departure, first reported in the Washington Post, but said it was not clear when his resignation would be officially announced.

The Post noted Prince Turki had been increasingly rumored as a possible replacement for his brother, Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, who it said was in fragile health and had recently been in Los Angeles for surgery.

Shortly before leaving Washington, Prince Turki met Monday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, her spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters, saying the visit had been scheduled in advance but not publicly announced.

Prince Turki has made a series of recent speeches urging Washington not to withdraw troops from Iraq.