At least one Saudi policeman and three militants were killed on Tuesday in a shootout at a hospital compound in the south of the kingdom, the latest in a series of clashes involving suspected al Qaeda members.

An Interior Ministry statement read on state television said five militants were involved in the incident, in which four other policemen were slightly wounded, in Jizan province near the border with Yemen.

"Two of the terrorists surrendered while three of them were killed," the statement said.

"They were intending to carry out terrorist operations and were armed with machine guns and hand grenades. They were asked to surrender but started firing at security forces," it added.

Police have had bloody clashes with militants since Riyadh intensified its crackdown on Muslim militants following the May suicide bombings in the capital Riyadh which killed 35 people, including nine Americans.

Saudi television showed bullet-riddled windows after the shootout in the residential compound at King Fahd hospital. It named one of the dead militants as Sultan Jibran al-Qahtani and said the two other bodies were still to be identified.

A Saudi official had earlier told Reuters that at least two policemen were killed in the clash. He said the gunmen had taken hostages but that they were freed unharmed.

Another Saudi official said it was not clear whether the gunmen had forced people to stay in the hospital or whether these civilians merely took shelter there from the gunfire.

The official said that a Saudi national who was on a wanted list of 19 al Qaeda suspects was among those arrested.

The list was issued in early May shortly before the Riyadh bombings, which are blamed on Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. More than 200 people have been arrested in the crackdown and large caches of weapons have been seized.

The poor mountainous Jizan province is a stronghold for Islamist militants and notorious for arms smuggling from Yemen.

Jizan is home to some of the 15 Saudi hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, which bin Laden has implied al Qaeda was responsible for.

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of bin Laden, is under intense pressure by the United States to fight terror and destroy al Qaeda cells.

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