President George W. Bush held talks with Saudi King Abdullah today to seek help in taming record oil prices and shore up Arab support for his efforts to contain Iran's growing influence.
On his second visit to Saudi Arabia this year, Mr Bush renewed his appeal for more oil from Opec amid rising pressure at home to act as record fuel prices weigh on the economy.
But the president was expected to fare no better than in January, when his plea was ignored.
"We do count on the Opec countries to keep adequate supplies out there, so the president will talk again with the king about that," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said before the meeting.
"We have had sluggish growth; with lower oil prices we could certainly have better growth."
As Mr Bush flew into Riyadh, the White House said the United States, the world's largest energy consumer, had agreed to help protect the resources of the world's top oil exporter and help it in developing peaceful nuclear energy.
Since Mr Bush's last visit, oil prices have jumped some $30 to a new record near $128 a barrel today, adding to US recession fears.
Mr Bush travels on to Egypt at the weekend to meet Palestinian leaders, and before then he will press the Saudis to do more to support faltering US-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.