Saudi Arabia and Mauritania will exchange intelligence and increase cooperation on military training and logistics, Mauritanian media reported Thursday.

Mauritania forms part of the Saudi-led military coalition currently battling Huthi rebels and Al-Qaeda fighters in Yemen, while contending with its own jihadist threat at home.

The west African nation has yet to send troops to Yemen, however.

An accord signed Wednesday declared that "military training and the exchange of intelligence" would be prioritised between the two conservative Islamic nations, the official AMI news agency reported.

Sandwiched between the west coast of Africa and the Sahara desert, Mauritania is seen by Western and Arab leaders as a bulwark against militant Islamist groups.

Kidnappings and attacks by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) were frequent when Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz came to power in 2008.

But he boasts that he has turned his nation into a regional haven of peace thanks to his reorganisation of the military and security forces.