Meeting with the Saudi foreign minister on Friday, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell repeated American concerns over the arrest of critics of the Saudi Arabian government. But he said later that the countries' relations remained ''quite strong'' and free of tension.
Stopping in the Saudi capital after his visit to Iraq, Mr. Powell met with Prince Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister, and Crown Prince Abdullah. He praised Saudi Arabia for its campaign against terrorism and listened intently at a news conference while Prince Faisal said the recent arrest of the dissidents was ''an internal issue.''
''We had a good, candid and open debate about this issue,'' Mr. Powell said. The United States had earlier criticized the arrests, and a senior State Department official said Mr. Powell had been told that all but three or four of the dissidents had been released.
Supporters say those arrested were punished for their criticism of the Saudi slowness to introduce democracy. The foreign minister said they had been arrested because they ''sowed dissension'' at a time when Saudi Arabia was under threat of terrorist attack.
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