Saudi King Abdullah pledged to annihilate Al-Qaeda-linked militants who have plagued the oil-rich kingdom with a wave of terrorist attacks.
"We renew our pledge to annihilate the deviant group of the terrorist killers," he said using a term that refers to Al-Qaeda network in Saudi Arabia.
He also vowed to "combat the ideology of those who accuse others of infidelity," as he addressed the kingdom's Shura (consultative) Council at the beginning of its term.
"There is no place for extremism in the land of the two (Muslim) holy sites" of Mecca and Medina, he added.
He said that his country's development "cannot be achieved unless there is an atmosphere of security and peace."
The oil-rich kingdom has been locked in a battle to thwart extremists, that it says are bent on overthrowing the royal family, since the start of a wave of violent clashes and attacks against Westerners in May 2003.
The kingdom has been under pressure to crack down on militancy since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, a strike masterminded by the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden in which 15 out of the 19 suicide hijackers were Saudi.
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