Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the new Saudi Arabia king

Riyadh: With the death of Saudi King Abdullah, the ruler of the world's largest oil exporter for almost a decade, Friday, his 79-year-old half-brother and former Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud took the pledge of allegiance as the new king.

Born December 1935, Salman is the 25th son of the Saudi kingdom's founder Abdulaziz Al Saud who conquered his rivals and welded disparate regions of the Arabian Peninsula into a kingdom in 1932, Xinhua reported.

For nearly five decades, Salman served as governor of Riyadh province. Since 2011, he was minister of defence following the death of his brother Prince Sultan.

In 2012, Salman was appointed the crown prince following the death of Saudi Arabia's heir apparent and interior minister Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

Since becoming heir to the throne, Salman, who also served as interior minister, has been presiding over cabinet meetings for several months and undertook a series of visits to the western and Asian countries.