Berlin (dpa) - German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas urged Saudi Arabia to pursue further social and economic reform on meeting his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in Berlin on Friday.

"You have provided information once more on modernization in your country, and we expressly acknowledge these steps," Maas said at a joint press conference with the prince.

"They are linked with economic developments, but also - and this is very important - with social and societal developments," he added.

Germany's relations with Saudi Arabia were hit by the October 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, after which Berlin banned armed exports to the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia has drawn international criticism for its engagement in a long-running civil war in Yemen, and the arch-conservative, oil-rich state's hosting of the next G20 summit in November has also been queried.

Prince Faisal has appealed for an end to the arms embargo. In response, Maas said that the block applied to all the countries involved in the Yemen conflict.

Prince Faisal responded that the Saudi government bore responsibility for security on its territory and for acquiring arms. "We will buy them where we can find them," he said.

The two ministers also discussed other crises in Syria and Libya, as well as Iran's infringements of the international nuclear deal.

"We are agreed that an Iranian atomic bomb must be stopped," Maas said. "Saudi Arabia can make a major and decisive contribution to the de-escalation of all the crises that we have discussed," he added.