Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - U.S. envoy Karen Hughes said on Tuesday Washington had privately discussed the issue of hate literature in American mosques with the Saudi government and asked for their help in getting rid it.
Hughes, whose job as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy is to counter the negative U.S. image among Muslims and explain
President George W. Bush's policies, brought the subject up publicly in a meeting with Saudi journalists.
But she did not discuss it -- nor other human rights issues -- in a meeting later with Saudi King Abdullah.
"I hope you will find room to respect people of different faith and different faith traditions," Hughes said at a luncheon with Saudi media.
"We are concerned that literature has been found in American mosques that has a message that is not tolerant and we hope the people of Saudi Arabia will work with us as we try to deal with this issue."
U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia James Oberwetter said Hughes was the first top Bush administration official to talk publicly in the kingdom about the anti-Christian, anti-Semitic material, which some human rights groups say has been sanctioned by the Saudi government.
"We've been raising the issue privately," Hughes told reporters traveling with her to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. "One of my jobs is to raise issues in, I hope, a respectful way to help other countries understand American values."
Hughes said she had never met Abdullah before and that they only "talked on personal terms."
"In a follow up meeting, I would feel very comfortable raising those issues," she said.
The U.S.-Saudi alliance, built on the twin pillars of security and oil, has been strained since the September 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks on New York and Washington carried out by al Qaeda. Most of the hijackers were Saudis.