Prince Sultan unveiled the SR580 billion budget for 2011 two weeks ago. The largest in the Kingdom’s history, the budget projected revenues at SR540 billion and allocated SR150 billion for education and training and SR68.7 billion for health and social affairs.

Culture and Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja said the Cabinet denounced the terrorist bombing of a church in Alexandria and conveyed its condolences to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the families of those who died. The blast killed 21 and injured 79.

The Cabinet expressed its satisfaction over the formation of the new Iraqi Cabinet and hoped it would bring about security and stability to the country and protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Prince Sultan earlier congratulated the Saudi people on the quick recovery of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah following back surgery at a New York hospital last month and hoped the king would soon return to the Kingdom in good health.

The Cabinet authorized Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal or his deputy to hold talks with officials in Germany, Italy, Spain and other countries to reach a reciprocal agreement for exempting people holding diplomatic and special passports from entry visas.

The Cabinet meeting also approved an agreement with Ethiopia for the mutual exemption of taxes and customs tariffs on their air transport services.

It appointed Ibrahim Al-Qudaibi as chairman of the higher commission for the settlement of labor disputes. The commission’s members are: Abdul Aziz Al-Abdullatif, Misfer Al-Khothami, Mansour Al-Mihmadi, Ahmed Al-Saleh, Hassan Al-Thubaity, Muhammad Al-Suleiman, Sahl Al-Mutlak, Abdul Aziz Al-Faridi, Muhammad Al-Shibani, Khaled Al-Qurashi and Muhammad Al-Thaqafi.