Saudi Arabia's General Directorate of Passports announced late on Thursday that citizens of the two countries will have to use their passports instead.

The sudden development comes at a time when the UAE was pushing ahead with its sophisticated ID card system, whereby the card could be used as a travel document and in various other transactions.

The Interior Ministry official told Gulf News: "They told the UAE about these procedures less than two days before announcing the decision to the public".

According to him, the Saudis said the new decision will be in place for at least 90 days during which both sides will look for a permanent solution.

A Saudi official source told Gulf News that this decision has nothing to do with the UAE map on the ID cards, referring to an old border dispute over a 50 square kilometre area between Ghuwaifat in the UAE and Batha'a in Saudi Arabia. The UAE map on the ID cards show the area as belonging partly to Qatar and the UAE.

"We are trying to control the border and crack down on drug trafficking and smuggling. We are trying to establish a new procedure at our entry and exit points," the Saudi source said.

But a report in the London-based Al Hayat newspaper confirmed that the UAE map was the bone of contention.

It quoted General Salem Bin Mohammad Al Blaihed, Director General of the Saudi General Directorate of Passports, as telling the Saudi Press Agency that Saudi Arabia has stopped accepting UAE ID cards as a travel document since the Saudi officials felt that the map on the UAE ID card does not comply with a 1974 border treaty between the two countries.