Saudi King Abdullah had urged the United States to attack Iran in order to stop its nuclear program, according to the leaked U.S. secret diplomatic cables published by the New York Times on Sunday.

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King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia made the "exhortations" during a meeting with U.S. senior officials in April 2008.

"The King, Foreign Minister, Prince Muqrin, and Prince Nayif all agreed that the Kingdom needs to cooperate with the U.S. on resisting and rolling back Iranian influence and subversion in Iraq," said one of the leaked cables.

"The King was particularly adamant on this point, and it was echoed by the senior princes as well. Al-Jubeir recalled the King' s frequent exhortations to the U.S. to attack Iran and so put an end to its nuclear weapons program," said the cable.

Some 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables were made public on Sunday by Wikileaks, a whistle-blower website. Many of the files were classified. Four media outlets, including New York Times, Britain's Guardian, France's Le Monde and Germany's Der Spiegel, have attained the documents from Wikileaks in advance.