US VP offers condolences on death of Saudi's crown prince

US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Saudi Arabia Thursday to offer US condolences on the death of Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, an AFP correspondent said. Biden, accompanied by a delegation of high-level military and civilian officials, arrived in the capital Riyadh and was greeted by Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal. He also met Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, governor of Riyadh and brother of Prince Sultan, the children of the late prince and Interior Minister Prince Nayef, who is widely expected to become the next crown prince. President Barack Obama announced Sunday that Biden would head a US delegation to the kingdom to pay respects for Prince Sultan, who died Friday in New York and was buried Tuesday in Riyadh. Biden went to the royal palace but sources in the monarch's entourage told AFP he did not meet with King Abdullah, who was still recovering from a back operation he undertook last week in Riyadh. Members delegation accompanying Biden included Republican Senator John McCain, CIA director David Petraeus and General James Mattis, head of the US Central Command for the Middle East and North Africa.