On the eve of U.S. President George W. Bush's address to Congress which is expected to tout the need for more U.S. energy independence, Saudi Arabia's U.S. ambassador on Monday said that the world's biggest oil user will rely on Middle East crude oil "for many years to come."

Bush's annual State of the Union address on Tuesday is expected to touch on key energy policy points after Bush made the surprise pronouncement during last year's address that the United States is addicted to crude oil, including supplies imported from the Middle East.

However, U.S. policymakers should be talking about interdependence with Middle East suppliers, not independence, said Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the kingdom's U.S. ambassador, speaking at George Washington University.

"I think we should be talking not about being independent of Middle East oil for the United States but rather being interdependent with the Middle East for energy sources," Al-Faisal said.

The United States and other nations "will remain in need of the resources of our part of the world in the energy sector for many years to come and that is something that your people should realize," he said.

Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest crude oil producer and the linchpin of the OPEC producer group, which pumps over a third of global oil supplies.