But Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Monday denied the reports in a Twitter post.

"I have seen press reports about a purported meeting between HRH the Crown Prince and Israeli officials during the recent visit by @SecPompeo. No such meeting occurred. The only officials present were American and Saudi," Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud tweeted.

Earlier, Israel's Army Radio and Kan Radio both reported that Netanyahu had secretly flown on Sunday to the Saudi Red Sea town of Neom for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, has traditionally championed the Palestinian cause and shunned all official contacts with Israel.

Netanyahu's office and the US embassy in Jerusalem had no immediate comment on the media reports, but Education Minister Yoav Gallant, a member of Netanyahu's security cabinet and Likud party, confirmed the Saudi meeting had taken place, describing it as an "amazing achievement".

"The very fact the meeting happened, and was outed publicly, even if half-officially right now, is a matter of great importance," Gallant told Army Radio.

The Saudi government's media office did not immediately respond to Reuters queries on the issue.

The Israeli media reports said Netanyahu had been joined on the trip by Mossad director Joseph (Yossi) Cohen, who has spearheaded discreet diplomatic outreach to Gulf Arab states.

Officials in Riyadh have so far declined to normalise ties with Israel.

But since August it has allowed Israeli airliners to overfly Saudi territory to newly available Gulf destinations and Asia.

Asked on Saturday whether the government in Riyadh had changed its position on Israel, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said the kingdom had favoured normalisation "for a long time" but on condition Israel and the Palestinians reach "a permanent and full peace deal".

Australian Associated Press