Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to London and a half-brother of Crown Prince Abdullah, was in charge of Saudi intelligence at the time of the 2001 terror attacks. He said that Moore had failed to carry out adequate research into his controversial claims that the Saudis were involved with Osama bin Laden, the al-Qa'eda leader, in the build-up to the 9/11 atrocity.

'It would have been far better if Michael Moore had been able to read the 9/11 report before he made his film. It shows that all the protocols were strictly observed.' Because Moore had not thoroughly researched the allegations levelled against Saudi Arabia, Prince Turki said that Fahrenheit 9/11 is 'grossly unfair' to the Saudis.

``This an election year ... and unfortunately Saudi bashing in expected,'' he said.

The Saudi government does not plan to send an official response to Kerry, but the kingdom has expressed displeasure over past anti-Saudi comments by U.S. politicians, and the Kerry campaign is aware of them, he said.

The United States itself is to blame for its dependence on foreign oil imports to meet more than half its petroleum demand, the Saudi official said.

He pointed out that the kingdom has urged the United States to produce vehicles with better gasoline mileage, but U.S. consumers keep buying gas-guzzling SUVs.

``We're not making them (SUVs),'' he said.