RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia’s official news agency reported early Sunday that the Iranian president had expressed support for a 2002 Arab peace initiative during talks with Saudi officials. An Iranian official, quoted by Iran’s state media, has denied that the initiative was discussed.

Under the peace plan, adopted in 2002 at the Arab summit in Beirut, Arab countries would normalize relations with Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from Arab lands captured in the 1967 war.

Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency, in a report carrying statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his return to Iran late Saturday following talks with King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia, did not mention the initiative.

Calls to Iranian officials in Teheran were not answered. There was no response to messages left for the press attache at the Iranian Embassy in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi Press Agency reported early Sunday that Ahmadinejad had said during talks that he was in favor of the plan. The report did not say how the agency had learned of this.

Later a spokesman for the Iranian presidency, Ehsan Jahandideh denied the report by the Saudi news agency. During the summit, no discussions were held in this regard,’ he told IRNA, the Iranian news agency.

On Ahmadinejad’s return to Iran, he told journalists that talks had dealt with the Palestinians situation and developments in Iraq, IRNA reported.

We have good relations with Saudi Arabia and it was necessary to discuss current developments in world of Islam with officials of the country,’ IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. AP