United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met Saudi Arabia's powerful deputy crown prince on Wednesday and the pair discussed improving civilian protection in Yemen, after a UN report had briefly blacklisted a Saudi-led coalition.

Ban removed the coalition from the blacklist earlier this month pending review after Riyadh, a major UN donor.

When asked on his way into the meeting if he was still upset with Ban, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is in New York for business meetings after visiting Washington and the US West Coast, said: "I'm not angry."

An official UN statement said Ban and Prince Mohammed discussed "putting into place concrete measures that could improve the situation on the ground" to better protect children and civilians in Yemen.

"The Secretary-General expressed the hope that by the time he presents the Children and Armed Conflict report to the Security Council in August, he could point to progress on the protection of children and civilians in Yemen," it said.

Saudi UN Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi described the meeting as excellent.

"The focus was on international issues, especially the issues of the region and there was broad agreement on virtually everything that was discussed," Mouallimi told reporters.

He said Ban and Saudi Arabia were both optimistic about peace talks in Kuwait between the government and Houthis, which have dragged on for two months with few concrete results. – Reuters