Saudi King Abdullah on Monday appointed as interior minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who has led a crackdown on al-Qaida and survived a suicide bomb attack claimed by the jihadists.

The monarch removed half-brother Prince Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz from the position "upon his request," according to a royal decree published on SPA state news agency, adding that he replaced him with Prince Mohammed.

Suspected al-Qaida militants shot dead two Saudi soldiers in a clash Monday as they attempted to infiltrate the kingdom's borders into neighboring Yemen, the interior ministry said.

Ten Saudi militants who were recently released from prison, in addition to a Yemeni, were all arrested after they ambushed a border guard patrol and killed two soldiers, the ministry said.

A Saudi man has been cured after he was diagnosed with a mystery illness from the same family as the deadly SARS virus and from which one person died, the kingdom's health ministry said on Sunday.

He was "diagnosed with a coronavirus infection at a hospital in Riyadh," the ministry announced in a statement reported by the official SPA news agency.

British Prime Minister David Cameron begins a three-day visit to the Gulf on Monday aimed at selling Typhoon Eurofighter jets and discussing regional security threats, his Downing Street office said.

Cameron will visit the United Arab Emirates on Monday and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday before travelling onwards in the Middle East. His itinerary on the rest of the trip remains undisclosed for security reasons.

French President Francois Hollande discussed Iran and the situation in unrest-hit Syria with Saudi King Abdullah in the city of Jeddah on Sunday on his first visit to the oil-rich kingdom, a spokesman said.

"The president discussed with King Abdullah the peace process in the Middle East, the Iranian nuclear programe, the Syrian crisis, as well as cooperation between both countries," Romain Nadal told Agence France Presse after a two-hour meeting between the leaders.

French President Francois Hollande is set to arrive in Beirut on Sunday for a three-hour visit to meet with his Lebanese counterpart President Michel Suleiman, As Safir newspaper reported.

A diplomatic source told the newspaper published on Friday that the “significance of this visit is that it comes amid the delicate situation that Lebanon and the region are passing through.”

A fuel truck exploded after hitting portions of a bridge Thursday in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, engulfing buildings and cars in flames and killing at least 22 people and injuring more than 110, witnesses and officials said.

The death toll was a significant increase in the number of reported casualties than in the first hours after the 7 a.m. explosion near the Saudi National Guard building in an industrial area in the city's eastern district. Columns of smoke could be seen rising from scene.

A fire sparked by celebratory gunfire has killed at least 25 people at a wedding in Saudi Arabia, media reported on Wednesday.

The bullets struck electric decorations that triggered a short-circuit, igniting a women-only marquee at the wedding on Tuesday night in Eastern Province, said Al-Yaoum newspaper, citing civil defense chief General Abdullah Khsheiman.

A Kuwaiti opposition figure said he has been summoned for questioning after allegedly criticizing the emir on television, as the Gulf state widened a crackdown on dissent.

"I will go to the public prosecution (on Wednesday) for interrogation on the accusation of undermining the status of the emir in a televised interview in August," former Islamist MP Faisal al-Muslim said on Twitter.

Saudi Arabia will build a massive Islamic center complete with a university and a mosque in Afghanistan, an Afghan minister said Monday, describing the project as "grand and unique".

Estimated to cost up to $100 million, the center on a hilltop in central Kabul will house up to 5,000 students, Dayi-Ul Haq Abed, the acting Hajj and religious affairs minister told AFP.