The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Riyadh

Twenty-eight people were killed when a fire broke out on a gas pipeline in an oil-rich desert area of Saudi Arabia on Sunday, the state oil firm said.

"Twenty-eight people, including five employees of Aramco, died," a spokesperson for oil conglomerate Saudi Aramco told AFP, without giving further details or nationalities of the dead.

The incident near a major gas plant in the oil-rich Eastern Province occurred while OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia was hosting a rare summit of the oil producers cartel in the capital Riyadh which wraps up on Sunday.

An Aramco statement said it had confirmed "the deaths of 28 workers, including five company employees, so far," suggesting this may not be a final toll. Aramco said the blaze erupted on the Haradh-Uthmaniyah gas pipeline, 30 kilometres (18 miles) from a major gas processing plant at Hawiyah, as maintenance work was being carried out.

There was no immediate suggestion of a terrorist link in the incident.

Saudi Arabia has been fighting suspected Al-Qaeda extremists for more than four years, and in February 2006 announced it had foiled an attempt to blow up an oil processing plant, the world's largest, in the Eastern Province.

The fire broke out at 00:25 am (2125 GMT Saturday) and was later brought under control, said Aramco, which runs the oil and gas operations of the world's top crude producer.

A high-level technical committee has been set up to probe the incident, it said.