Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula militants are holding a Saudi diplomat kidnapped in Yemen's southern city of Aden, in a bid to secure the release of prisoners and collect a ransom, the kingdom's state news agency SPA reported on Tuesday.

An AQAP member confirmed in a telephone call to the Saudi ambassador in Sanaa that the group "is responsible for the kidnapping of the deputy consul in Aden, saying that their demands include handing over several prisoners to members of the network in Yemen," SPA said.

Iran's foreign ministry on Monday summoned the Saudi ambassador to protest over Riyadh's treatment of Iranian nationals jailed in the kingdom, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Ministry officials questioned the ambassador over "worrisome" reports on the treatment of Iranian nationals jailed in the city of Dammam, capital of the Eastern Province that is home to most of the kingdom's Shiite minority.

Saudi Arabia on Saturday denied any deal with Sweden to build an arms factory, in its first reaction to a weeks-old controversy which led to the resignation of the Swedish defense minister.

"The Saudi Defense Ministry affirms that no accord has been signed in the past with the friendly kingdom of Sweden to build a weapons factory in Saudi Arabia and that no such project exists," state news agency SPA reported.

Amnesty International on Friday called for the release of a human rights activist who has reportedly been on hunger strike in a Saudi jail for five weeks.

Mohammed bin Saleh al-Bajadi, co-founder of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), has reportedly refused to take water since last weekend, it said in a statement.

A Saudi court sentenced a radical cleric who fiercely supports the segregation of the sexes to five years in prison on Wednesday for "incitement" against the kingdom's rulers, media reported.

Youssef al-Ahmed was also sentenced to a five-year travel ban and fined 100,000 Saudi riyals ($26,600), said aleqt.com, the website of Al-Eqtesadiya daily.

A Saudi human rights group voiced alarm on Tuesday about the health of one of its members, who has been on hunger strike for almost a month and who stopped drinking water at the weekend.

"The interior ministry... carries full responsibility over the deteriorating health condition of prominent rights activist and member of the association Mohammed bin Saleh al-Bajadi," the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) said.

The trial opened in Saudi Arabia on Saturday of 50 al-Qaida suspects accused of carrying out and plotting attacks in the kingdom, including U.S. and British interests, state news agency SPA reported.

It said 47 Saudis, a Syrian and a Yemeni national went on trial in the specialized criminal court in Riyadh.

A military appeals court in Tunis Saturday upheld the convictions of Tunisia's ousted president and his top officials for torturing army officers over an alleged coup plot, judicial sources told Agence France Presse.

"The verdict was pronounced Saturday in a closed door session," said one of the defense lawyers, Abada Kefi, who said he would take the case to a higher court.

A Saudi national has filed a complaint of kidnapping and assault against four armed men, the National News Agency reported Wednesday.

It said Ahmed Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Shakhsi filed the complaint at the police station of al-Saadiyat town in Iqlim al-Kharroub, claiming that the gunmen kidnapped him on Monday from outside his house and returned him at dawn the next day.

Iran should forge better ties with regional rival Saudi Arabia to counter Western sanctions on Iranian oil, a former president who now chairs an advisory body to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged on Tuesday.

"If we had good relations with Saudi Arabia, would the West have been able to impose sanctions (on Iran's oil)?", Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani asked in the latest issue of the International Studies Journal, a three-monthly Iranian publication.