British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has agreed to give military support to Saudi Arabia to help it tackle attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis, media reports said on Monday.

British planes will provide "defensive" air-to-air refuelling for Saudi jets, he told reporters as he travelled to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The UK mission will be limited to supporting Saudi aircraft defending the country from attack from drones and missiles rather than supporting strikes against the Houthis, the PA news agency reported.

The use of the Voyager tanker is expected to start within days and the mission will be time-limited, with officials indicating it could last for "weeks".

The refuelling mission is in addition to the UK Sky Sabre air defence system already deployed in Saudi Arabia.

Burnham told reporters he was "acting to secure the interests of Britain and the wider region because, of course, Saudi Arabia has been experiencing attacks, is looking at potential further disruption, and we need to keep those pathways open, and hence our agreement to the request", according to the reports.

A Houthi attack on Riyadh on Saturday was the first to target the Saudi capital in years and a major escalation.

This month, the Houthis, who already held most of Yemen's populated areas, launched a lightning offensive to take over the country's entire Red Sea coast, giving them control over the vital Bab al-Mandab strait.

Saudi Arabia has, since 2015, led a coalition backing the internationally recognised government. Its intervention escalated the war, which has triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises in the impoverished country.

har/abs