RIYADH - The aborted attack on Saudi Arabia's major oil processing complex shows that Al-Qaeda militants remain a threat to the kingdom but also that they are losing steam, analysts said Saturday.

Friday's attempt to blow up the Abqaiq plant in the oil-rich Eastern Province with two car bombs "is a message that we need to be careful" about the continuing terror threat, Sheikh Mohsen al-Awaji, a moderate Islamist, told AFP.

But the attempted attack, which left two security men and at least two assailants dead, also suggests that Al-Qaeda's local branch is "not a serious threat, because this (thwarted attack) could happen anywhere."

The assailants, numbering at least two and wearing uniforms of state oil giant Saudi Aramco, were stopped by security forces as they tried to drive two booby-trapped cars, painted in Aramco colors, into the plant. The vehicles exploded several kilometers (miles) from the facility.

The attempted attack, claimed by Al-Qaeda's Saudi branch in an Internet statement whose authenticity could not be confirmed, was the first of its kind against an oil installation in the world's largest producer. The thwarted bombing came despite the fact that the network's founder Osama bin Laden had called on his followers to target such facilities as far back as December 2004.

It was also the first major operation by "Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," as the local outfit calls itself, since the storming in December 2004 of the US consulate in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, which left five non-American consular staff members and contractors, as well as four gunmen, dead.

Al-Qaeda, which launched a wave of terror in the kingdom in May 2003, has since the consulate attack been dealt harsh blows by Saudi security forces, who have systematically liquidated its successive chiefs and top operatives.

"Most of their leaders, whether military or ideological, have been either killed or captured," Awaji said.

"There are very, very few of them" left, he added in a reference to the militants.

The demise of the top leaders has given rise to the emergence of a new generation of young militants, sometimes little known to the authorities, which complicates the security forces' task. However, it also means that the militants are not well prepared to carry out attacks.

"All the professionals are dead or on the run, maybe in Iraq or Afghanistan," said Fares bin Hizam, a Saudi analyst and Al-Qaeda expert.

"The young ones are those who did the job yesterday," he told AFP, adding that the attempted attack showed their lack of knowledge of the security measures put in place by Aramco and Saudi authorities.

Al-Qaeda's local branch "is finished now," bin Hazem argued.

Awaji said bin Laden's followers had "no significant support whatsoever (in the country) compared to the situation two years ago," because they committed mistakes, chiefly by "targeting their own people."

While Al-Qaeda may be losing ground in Saudi Arabia, the eventual return of militants now fighting in Iraq to the kingdom could change the situation, much as the return of Saudi "mujahedeen" who fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s was a key factor in the creation of Al-Qaeda.

But Awaji insisted that there is a difference between the two.

"Those who went to Afghanistan had a two-way ticket, since they had no intention to stay or end their life there, whereas those who went to Iraq have a one-way ticket. They have no intention of coming back," he said.

Awaji admitted, however, that if some battle-hardened militants returned from Iraq, "it would be a disaster for us."

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