Saudi Arabia has said it will stop using British-made cluster bombs in the war in Yemen after the UK government raised allegations over their use with the Saudi-led coalition.

Because of their extraordinary risk to civilians, cluster bombs were banned in 2010 in an international treaty signed by Britain that committed the country to preventing their use by other nations.

A statement from the Saudi government, quoted by the state news agency SPA, confirmed the coalition had used the BL-755 cluster munitions.

The administration said it had used the devices, which scatter bomblets across a wide area, in a limited way to protect its borders.

"The government of Saudi Arabia confirms that it has decided to stop the use of cluster munitions of the type BL-755 and informed the United Kingdom government of that," the statement reported by SPA said.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon is due to make a statement to MPs in the House of Commons on arms exports.

It comes after repeated media reports that cluster bombs made in the UK were being used in the Yemen conflict.

Sources, speaking before the release of the Saudi statement, said the UK government was taking the allegations "very seriously" and has raised them with the Saudi-led coalition.

The prime minister of Yemen's rebel Houthi government, Abdel-Aziz bin Habtour, earlier accused the UK of "war crimes" for supplying arms to the coalition and said the country was profiting from the humanitarian crisis.

The Saudi-led coalition is conducting military operations in Yemen to restore the previous regime overthrown in 2015.