Dhaka - Saudi Arabia promised to recruit more Bangladeshi workers, while reassuring Dhaka that complications over work permits faced by over 2 million Bangladeshi workers already in the kingdom would be resolved, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said Saturday. Moni made the comments while briefing reporters on the recent five-day visit by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed to the kingdom.

Hasina, who had talks with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdullah Aziz al-Saud, returned home Saturday, ending her first-ever official trip to the oil-rich country since her assumption to office early January.

Bangladeshi workers have long faced problems with jobs in Saudi Arabia as their permits have not been transferable, with many Bangladeshis flying home empty handed after not being given the jobs promised by the recruiting agents or after losing a job.

"Once their work permits are transferable, they will not necessarily be facing such troubles," the foreign minister said.

Bangladesh, a major manpower exporting country, earns the lion share of its average 8 billion dollars remittance income from Saudi Arabia.