Osama bin Laden told a top Qaeda operative to recruit Saudis for the September 2001 hijackings in an effort to strain relations between the United States and the kingdom, a Saudi official said today.

Mr. bin Laden made his comments in a conversation with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the Qaeda operations chief captured earlier this year, said the official, who added that Mr. bin Laden's statements were related to American interrogators by Mr. Mohammed.

The Saudi official, who said he was told of the conversation by American officials, asserted that Mr. bin Laden approved Mr. Mohammed's recruitment of Saudis because ''they wanted to strike Saudi Arabia as much as they wanted to hit the United States.''

It was not clear where or when the conversation between the men might have taken place.

Mr. bin Laden is a Saudi citizen, and a number of his most ardent followers are from Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, a number of them young men recruited only a few months before the attacks. Of the four others, one was Egyptian, one Lebanese and two were from the United Arab Emirates.

Mr. Mohammed was born to Pakistani parents in Kuwait.

The official said Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Mohammed were fully aware that a Saudi-dominated hijacking plot would place a strain on the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia and turn public opinion against that country.

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Most American experts have reached a somewhat different conclusion, saying Mr. bin Laden and other plotters turned to Saudis because the country's restive young people provided fertile ground for recruitment.

Another reason why Mr. bin Laden might have relied primarily on Saudis for the attacks was that at the time, Saudis, like citizens of some other Persian Gulf states, could obtain visas to enter the United States under an expedited program.

Intelligence officials have said suspected plotters from other countries -- like Ramzi bin al-Shibh, another Qaeda operative from Yemen -- sought entry into the United States, but were denied. Mr. bin al-Shibh tried repeatedly to enter the United States to attend a flight school, only to be turned down by American authorities.

On another issue, the official said American authorities had asked Saudi Arabia to stem the suspected flow of its people across the border into Iraq, where some are believed to be linking up with other foreign fighters opposing the American-led occupation.

But the official denied that there had been a movement of Saudis across the border and said that in response to requests, the United States had failed to provide Saudi Arabia with evidence to support its allegations.

The official said Saudi authorities were worried about another border issue -- arms smuggling across the southern border with Yemen, a mountainous region where weapons traffickers are suspected of shipping military equipment to militants inside the kingdom.

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