The Lebanese Army Command and a French delegation are seeking to reach common ground over the protocols regarding the implementation of a $3 billion arms deal under a Saudi grant.

An Nahar newspaper reported that consecutive meetings are being held to finalize the deal ahead of December 16, pointing out that the French delegation will send the agreement to Saudi and French authorities to kick off the arming process.

A Saudi court on Wednesday sentenced one man to death and imprisoned several others for involvement in an al-Qaida cell that targeted foreigners, official media said.

The Saudi Press Agency said nine accused were jailed for between five and 33 years for activities including "photographing locations and collecting information, in the al-Qaida terrorist operation that targeted three different locations in Khobar," a community on the Gulf coast.

The American pilot and co-pilot of a Cessna airplane were slightly hurt Wednesday evening when they crashed short of a runway in the Saudi capital, a civil aviation spokesman said.

The pilot radioed that he needed to make an emergency landing because he had run out of fuel, Khaled al-Khaibari, spokesman for the General Authority of Civil Aviation, told Agence France-Presse.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday executed a Syrian convicted of drug smuggling, bringing to 75 the number of locals and foreigners beheaded in the kingdom this year despite international concerns.

The sentence against Ridwan Awad Mohammed Awad was carried out in the city of Qurayyat near the border with Jordan, the interior ministry said.

Russia plans to strengthen its military ties with Khartoum, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday during a visit to internationally isolated and sanctions-hit Sudan.

"We have a project and a plan to develop military cooperation in a way that will not disturb the balance of power in the region," Lavrov said at a news conference after meeting his Sudanese counterpart Ali Karti.

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday urged Saudi authorities to "immediately release" two women arrested after one of them attempted to drive into the kingdom in defiance of a ban.

Border officers stopped Loujain Hathloul when she tried to drive from neighbouring United Arab Emirates into Saudi Arabia on Sunday. Maysaa Alamoudi, a UAE-based Saudi journalist, later arrived to support her.

A Saudi court on Tuesday sentenced to death a man who opened fire numerous times on police in a Shiite-dominated community in the country's east, official media said.

It is the latest of several death sentences which activists say have been handed down since 2011 when demonstrations began among the minority Shiites.

Saudi authorities have blocked the website of a regional human rights group which reported the case of a woman who tried to defy the kingdom's ban on female drivers.

Attempts inside Saudi Arabia to access the Internet site of the Gulf Center for Human Rights (http://gc4hr.org) brought up a notice on Tuesday saying: "Sorry, the requested page is unavailable."

An Islamic State-linked media group has released a video claiming to show the shooting of a Danish national by its "supporters" in Saudi Arabia last month, U.S.-based monitoring group SITE said.

Denmark has confirmed that one of its nationals was shot and wounded in the Saudi capital Riyadh on November 22.

A Saudi woman who tried to drive into the kingdom in defiance of a ban was arrested Monday after being blocked at the UAE border for a day, activists said.

Conservative Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world which does not allow women to drive.