A move by Saudi Arabia to allow only clerics approved by King Abdullah to issue religious edicts is a signal that the absolute monarchy wants to rein in a conservative clergy that has sometimes stood in the way of political reforms .
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The world's biggest oil exporting country, a close US ally, is ruled by the Al Saud family with influence from clerics who follow the austere Wahhabi school of Islam. Political freedom, including women's rights, is limited .
The move would help Saudi rulers push through education and justice reforms without having to contend with religious edicts, or fatwas, of politically driven conservative clerics opposed to modernization efforts.
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