Saudi Arabia has deployed 30,000 soldiers to its border with Iraq after Iraqi soldiers withdrew from the area.

Saudi Arabia has deployed 30,000 soldiers to its border with Iraq after Iraqi soldiers withdrew from the area, the Dubai-based Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television said on Thursday.

The world's top oil exporter shares an 800-km (500-mile) border with Iraq.

King Abdullah has ordered all necessary measures to protect the kingdom against potential "terrorist threats", state news agency SPA reported on Thursday.

Al-Arabiya justified the alleged troops deployment into the border region by what it reported earlier that Iraqi government forces abandoned positions, leaving the Saudi and Syrian frontiers unprotected.