The Queen will attempt to smooth over relations with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia today after a state visit to London got off to a bumpy start.

The Saudi monarch, who arrived yesterday afternoon with a retinue of princes and courtiers in a fleet of private jets, will be escorted down The Mall this morning and will attend a state banquet at Buckingham Palace, where senior members of the Saudi Royal Family are staying as guests of the Queen.

It is hoped that the carefully choreographed ceremonies will help to restore bilateral ties, which looked decidedly frayed yesterday after public criticisms and a diplomatic gaffe.

Before his arrival on the first state visit for 20 years, King Abdullah used some very undiplomatic language to criticise his hosts for Britain’s failure to combat terrorism.

Expert View

After examining King Abdullah’s claim, MI5 found it was full of holes

Michael Evans

• More

• Post a comment

Related Links

• Huge entourage arrives in five jumbo jets

• Courting compromise for the sake of stability

• FO under pressure as Milibands adopt

“I believe that most countries are not taking this issue too seriously, including, unfortunately, Great Britain,” he told the BBC. “We have sent information to Great Britain before the terrorist attacks in Britain, but unfortunately no action was taken and it may have been able to avert the tragedy.”

He went on to predict that the campaign against terrorism would last another 20 or 30 years and urged all countries “including Britain” to take the matter “very, very seriously”.

The outburst astonished and bewildered senior officials in London.

Intelligence exchanges between the two countries have improved significantly since the al-Qaeda attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, and Riyadh has been praised for its own robust operations against terrorists in Saudi Arabia.

So there was particular annoyance over the King’s accusation that Saudi intelligence supplied in the lead-up to the July 7 bombings in London could have saved the 52 lives lost. One security official said: “We said before that there was nothing in the intelligence to point to a specific plot to launch a suicide attack in London and, in fact, the information was quite vague and was not considered credible.”

According to senior Whitehall sources, the reason for the Saudi King’s accusation was linked with his known desire for the Saudis and British to share all information connected with al-Qaeda. He feels his idea has been spurned.

As Whitehall tried to play down the row, officials then had to contend with an incident of Britain’s making. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, cancelled his appearance at a conference to promote British-Saudi relations because he was in America finalising the adoption of his second son.

His replacement by Kim Howells, a junior minister responsible for the Middle East, prompted Prince Saud al-Faisal to pull out of the event as well. He was replaced by the Saudi Ambassador to London, Prince Mohamed bin Nawaf.

British officials insisted that the last-minute changes were unavoidable. But among protocol-conscious Saudis, the incident was regarded at best as mishandled and at worst as a snub.

Other contentious issues are also likely to dog the Saudi monarch during his visit. Antiarms trade protesters are expected to demonstrate against the Government’s halting of an investigation into allegations of fraud in an arms deal between BAE Systems and a senior figure in the Saudi Royal Family, who is part of the delegation on the state visit.

Human rights campaigners are also likely to protest outside the Saudi Embassy in Mayfair and to shadow the Saudi ruler during his stay.

Vince Cable, the acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, announced that he was boycotting the visit and pulling out of the Palace banquet.

“By any standards, and in the assessment of our own Foreign Office, the human rights record of this Government is absolutely appalling,” said Dr Cable. “They point to the systematic discrimination against women, people of other religions, the exercise of systematic corporal punishment, through amputation, the public beheadings.”

British officials insisted that the Government did regularly raise human rights concerns with the Saudi authorities, although discussions are more likely to be dominated by regional crises, counter-terrorist cooperation and commercial ties, worth £3.5 billion a year to British exporters.

Gordon Brown, who will meet King Abdullah tomorrow, is expected to discuss Iraq, the threat posed by Iran and the crisis in Lebanon. Much of the discussion will focus on American efforts to convene a Middle East peace conference in Annapolis next month, where the Bush Administration is hoping the Saudis will sit down with an Israeli delegation for the first time. The Saudis will want London’s diplomatic support for any Middle East peace moves.

Times Recommends

• Fern Britton: 'I still can't see that I was wrong'
• Extreme cooking
• Easy French: Tarte Tatin