from the Washington Post .... 

President Bush on Monday launched a rare round of intensive personal diplomacy with Saudi King Abdullah aimed at winning support for a variety of American objectives such as rebuilding Iraq, pressuring Iran, fighting al-Qaeda and backing the US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Bush and Abdullah embraced warmly at the bottom of the steps leading from Air Force One after the plane touched down here for the president's first visit to the kingdom - and his first face-to-face meeting with Abdullah in three years.

Bush came bearing a big gift: his administration formally notified Congress on Monday that it plans to seek approval for the sale to Saudi Arabia of $120 million in precision-guided bombs as part of an overall arms package worth roughly $20 billion. Congress has 30 days to try to block the sales, but administration officials appeared confident they have the votes to proceed with the deal ...

Under Abdullah, the Saudis have also pursued a foreign policy more independent of the United States than they had in the past, irking the White House by brokering an ultimately unsuccessful deal between the Fatah and Hamas factions in the Palestinian territories and testing to see whether some kind of accommodation could be reached with Iran.  

Abdullah shocked US officials last year when he described the American military presence in Iraq as an 'illegitimate foreign occupation.'...

While publicly polite, the Saudi king and other leading figures also see the incumbent U.S. president as a disappointment - certainly compared with his father, George H.W. Bush, who was lionized here for his handling of the Persian Gulf War.  

By contrast, former officials and others close to the royal family say, Saudi royals believe Bush has handled issues such as Iran, Iraq and Middle East peace ineptly. 

Personal Approach Marks Bush's First Saudi Visit