KUWAIT CITY, April 30 (AFP) - Boycotting US products is "not feasible" and Arabs should focus more on penetrating US public opinion as a means to influencing decision-making, billionaire Saudi businessman Prince Al-Walid bin Talal said in an interview published Tuesday.

A "boycott is not feasible, as a matter of fact, it is us, the Arabs, who stand more to benefit from maintaining trade ties with the US because the trade balance between the Arabs and the US is in our favour," he told the English-daily Arab Times.

Prince Walid, who holds worldwide investments worth billions of dollars, said the volume of US trade with the Arab world amounts to no more than three percent of its total trade volume.

"Israel took advantage of the September 11 attacks to brand Arabs and Muslims terrorists, and went about freely massacring Palestinians with the support of US public opinion -- totally neglected by us and highly exploited by the Israelis," he said.

Prince Walid, who hailed Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz's recent visit to the United States as "reaffirming the historical ties between the two countries," said the visit was based on Prince Abdullah's "belief the US court should not be left to Israel."

Arab countries can influence US decision-making "if they unite through economic interests, not political," he stressed.

"We have to be logical and understand that the US administration is subject to US public opinion," said the 43-year-old nephew of King Fahd.

"We (Arabs) are not so active in this sphere (public opinion). And to bring the decision-maker on your side, you not only have to be active inside the US Congress or the administration but also inside US society."

Prince Walid, who strongly endorsed his country's rejection of using oil as a weapon, reiterated that the "right approach" would be swaying public opinion in countries controlling political decision-making.

"These countries control the weapons, the tools and means for change, this is the only way for us to effect a change and build a balanced and fair vision of what is really taking place in our Arab and Muslim countries."

He also described the Saudi-US relationship as "long and well-established" and "more distinguished than other Arab-US relationships with uncomparable stability."

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