RIYADH -- Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah said the United States was not doing enough to restrain Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, whose policies were undermining Washington's declared war on terror, Reuters reported.

The kingdom's de facto ruler also issued a vague warning in a statement after meeting U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in Morocco on Monday that Arabs might resort to other options if the world did not adopt the Saudi Middle East Peace initiative.

"We, and the whole world, realize the role and weight of the United States," he said in the statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on Tuesday.

"The pressure tools in the hands of the American Administration enable it to stop the bloodshed, loss of soul and dignity that have been created by the Israeli government's actions against our brothers in Palestine," SPA quoted Abdullah as telling Powell.

"A nation, which in the near past raised the banner of peace and the initiative for a comprehensive and just solution, is not at all incapable of shouldering its historic responsibility toward God and its peoples."

Prince Abdullah, who runs the day-to-day affairs of the oil superpower, did not spell out what other options the kingdom and fellow Arab countries would take if Israel did not withdraw its forces from Arab land.

In August, he wrote to U.S. President George W. Bush that U.S.-Saudi relations were at a crossroads and that Riyadh would be forced to review its ties unless Washington took active steps to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Saudi proposal -- which offers Israel normal ties with Arabs in return for full withdrawal from Arab lands occupied in 1967 and the return of Palestinian refugees -- lost its lustre among Arabs when Israel widened its military offensive aimed at quelling a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.

Sharon said on Monday he welcomed the peace plan floated by Prince Abdullah and adopted at an Arab summit last month, but said details must be discussed "between the sides themselves".

But Prince Abdullah said Sharon was not a man of peace.

"At a time when the United States is exerting serious and huge international efforts to fight terrorism, we see Sharon -- who claims to be a U.S. ally -- is doing everything in his power to sink this effort," he told Powell.

"In fact he (Sharon) is trying to make the world believe the massacres he is carrying out in Palestine are in line with what the United States is doing to fight terrorism," Prince Abdullah said, adding that there was a "vast difference" between a terrorist and what he described as a freedom fighter.