President Joe Biden is leaning towards making a visit to Saudi Arabia - a trip that would likely bring him face-to-face with Saudi crown prince he once shunned as a killer.

The White House is weighing a visit to Saudi Arabia that would also include a meeting of leaders of Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates) as well as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, according to a person familiar with White House planning.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss yet-to-be finalized plans. It comes at a moment when overriding US strategic interests in oil and security have pushed administration to rethink arms-length stance that Biden pledged to take with Saudis as a candidate for White House.

Any meeting between Biden and de facto Saudi ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a Biden visit to Middle East could offer hope of some relief for US gasoline consumers, who are wincing as a squeaky-tight global oil supply drives up prices. Biden would be expected to meet with Prince Mohammed, who is often referred to by his initials, MBS - if Saudi visit happens, according to the person familiar with the deliberations.

Such a meeting could also ease one of most fraught and uncertain periods in a partnership between Saudi Arabia, world's top oil exporter, and the United States, the world's top economic and military power, that has stood for more than three-quarters of a century.

But it also risks a public humbling for US leader, who in 2019 pledged to make a "pariah" of Saudi royal family over 2018 killing and dismemberment of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a newspaper critic of many of brutal ways that Prince Mohammed operates. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday declined to comment on whether Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia. Biden is expected to travel to Europe at the end of June.

He could tack on a stop in Saudi Arabia to meet with Prince Mohammed, Saudi King Salman and other leaders. The president would also likely visit Israel should he extend his upcoming travels to include Saudi Arabia.

 Last week, the White House confirmed that NSC Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser for energy security at the State Department, were recently in the region. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone Monday with his Saudi counterpart.

McGurk and Hochstein, as well as Tim Lenderking, the US special envoy for Yemen, have repeatedly visited Saudi Arabia for talks with Saudi officials about energy supplies, Biden administration efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal and Saudi's war in Yemen, recently calmed by a cease-fire.