Saudi Arabia's deputy consul in Yemen's southern port city of Aden was seized by unknown gunmen outside his home on Wednesday, a police official told Agence France Presse.

"Abdullah al-Khalidi was kidnapped while leaving his home in the Mansoura neighborhood of Aden," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The new head of Saudi Arabia's notorious religious police has said he will cut back on the number of "undercover" patrols by his organization which enforces the kingdom's strict Islamic rules.

"The number of undercover vehicles will be reduced in all regions, and we shall reconsider their tasks by either regulating their work or cancelling it all together," Abdullatif al-Sheikh said, quoted by local media on Tuesday.

Arab economy ministers opened talks in Baghdad on Tuesday ahead of a regional summit, focused on increasing tourism as the spectra of the crackdown in Syria loomed over the meetings.

Arab League officials have insisted the March 27-29 talks, a pivotal moment as Iraq bids to re-emerge as a key Middle East player, will cover a wide range of issues, but Syria, where monitors say over 9,100 people have been killed in an anti-regime uprising, remains in the limelight.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will late this week launch a new diplomatic drive aimed at ending the bloodshed in Syria, making visits to Saudi Arabia and Turkey, officials said Monday.

Clinton will meet in Riyadh with Saudi King Abdullah and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal as well as foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia's five Gulf Arab neighbors, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday.

Yemen's President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi travelled to Riyadh on Monday, his first foreign trip since being appointed last month, to meet Saudi King Abdullah, the SPA state news agency reported.

Their discussions touched on bilateral and regional issues, the report said without elaborating.

French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet held talks Saturday with his Saudi counterpart in Riyadh on bolstering ties between their ministries, SPA state news agency reported.

The meeting focused on "strengthening bilateral relations and existing partnerships between the defense ministries" of the two countries, SPA quoted defense minister Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz as saying.

Saudi authorities have banned prominent rights activist Waleed Abu Alkhair from travelling to the United States where he was to attend a forum organized by the U.S. State Department, he told Agence France Presse.

"Public prosecutors have issued an order banning me from travel for security reasons, two days before I must head to Washington to take part" in the forum, Alkhair said late on Wednesday.

Bahraini opposition activists on Monday staged a sit-in outside the headquarters of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (U.N.-ESCWA) in Beirut, condemning “the Saudi interference in Bahrain” and urging the international community to “shoulder its historic responsibilities regarding this illegitimate interference which represents a blatant occupation.”

According to a statement carried by Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, activists delivered a letter to U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly urging the United Nations to “demand the Saudi forces to withdraw from Bahrain for violating the U.N. Charter, especially the articles related to the sovereignty of nations over their territories and the prevention of interference in the domestic affairs of the countries.”

A powerful sandstorm blowing over the Gulf has disrupted air traffic in Yemen, and closed schools and sent hundreds of people to hospital with respiratory problems in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi ministry of education announced on Monday the closure of schools in the north, east and south-west of the desert kingdom, a day after similar measures were taken in the capital Riyadh, the official SPA news agency reported.

Syria said Sunday that two deadly bomb blasts in Damascus were aimed at sabotaging peace efforts, as U.N. experts prepared to join a government-led humanitarian mission to devastated protest hubs.

"Yesterday's explosions were carried out by terrorists supported by foreign powers which finance and arm them," charged Al-Baath newspaper, mouthpiece of Syria's ruling party of the same name.