Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea returned to Beirut on Tuesday from his trip to Riyadh where he held talks with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and a number of high-ranking Saudi officials, said the LF media department in a statement.

Geagea and Hariri held lengthy and comprehensive talks on the situation in Lebanon and the region, it added.

Saudi authorities have released seven Shiites detained after protests in the oil-rich Eastern Province earlier this year, activists said on Tuesday.

The group attended a "guidance session" by a Shiite cleric before leaving prison, the same sources said.

Saudi Arabia will need a breakeven crude oil price of $74 per barrel to generate the funds required to meet its widening expenditure next year, Jadwa Investment said on Tuesday.

The OPEC kingpin announced on Monday yet another expansionary budget with spending marked at 690 billion riyals ($184 billion), and revenues reaching 702 billion riyals.

OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia on Monday posted a budget surplus of 306 billion riyals (81.6 billion) for 2011, as revenues turned out to be double the forecast, the finance ministry said.

The world's largest crude oil exporter had expected a deficit of 40 billion riyals ($10.7 billion), or 7.4 percent, with planned expenditure of 580 billion riyals ($154.7 billion).

The United States, its European allies and key Arab states are intensifying talks on how to maintain stability in the global energy markets in case of a formal embargo on Iran's oil exports and its central bank, The Wall Street Journal reported late Sunday.

Citing unnamed U.S. and European officials, the newspaper said such an embargo would constitute the most direct economic confrontation yet between Iran and the West.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have urged Saudi Arabia to scrap amputation sentences against six men convicted of robbery, with HRW on Saturday calling the sentencing "prohibited torture."

"Cutting off someone's hands and feet is torture, plain and simple," said HRW senior Middle East researcher Christoph Wilcke.

The U.S. administration on Thursday placed Saleh al-Qarawi, a senior Saudi member of the Lebanon-based Abdullah Azzam Brigades, on its blacklist of global terrorists.

The move freezes any assets held by Qarawi in the United States and bans Americans from doing business with him.

Coca-Cola said Wednesday it would pay $980 million for a stake in Saudi soft drinks producer Aujan Industries, expanding its footprint the fast-growing Gulf non-alcoholic beverage sector.

Coke will take a 50 percent share of Aujan, which produces juices under the Rani brand and Barbican, one of the leading brands in the non-alcoholic beer market.

Iran held talks with Saudi Arabia to try to convince Riyadh it had nothing to do with unfounded U.S. claims of a plot to kill the Saudi envoy to Washington, Tehran said according to media on Wednesday.

Iran's intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi, travelled to Saudi Arabia on Monday to clear up "misunderstandings" created by the U.S. allegations, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in a report by ISNA news agency.

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz made a minor reshuffle in the cabinet of the oil-rich kingdom on Tuesday, the first since 2009, state media reported.

The main ministries of defense, interior and foreign affairs, held by top members of the royal family, remain unchanged, as does the strategic energy ministry.