Saudi Arabia will recognise the Syrian National Council as the "official representative" of the Syrian people, a senior member of the opposition group said in remarks published on Friday.

"Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told an SNC delegation he met in Cairo last week the kingdom will recognise the Council as the official representative of the Syrian people," SNC executive council member Ahmad Ramadan told Kuwait's Al-Rai newspaper.

He did not say when Riyadh will make the move or whether it will be joined by its five partners in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which this week announced that it was following Saudi Arabia's lead in pulling out its representatives from a widely criticised Arab League observer mission to Syria.

Ramadan, who attended the meeting, quoted Prince Saud as saying that Arab governments are convinced that it was the Syrian government that caused the observer mission to fail.