He vowed to "bring to justice those who are responsible for this heinous crime".

Many countries responded with skepticism to the version of a brawl involving Khashoggi and rogue officials, putting Saudi Arabia on the defensive even as it hosted an investment conference this week that many dignitaries skipped because of the scandal.

Khashoggi was missing since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

A joint Turkish-Saudi team searched the residence of the Consul General as well as the Saudi consulate last week as part of the investigation into the case. According to two intelligence sources, Qahtani ran Khashoggi's killing by giving orders over Skype.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "strongly said that he had nothing to do with this, this was at a lower level", US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, adding he had spoken on Monday to the prince and to his father King Salman.

That earlier assertion, in turn, backtracked from an initial statement that Saudi authorities knew nothing about what happened to the columnist for The Washington Post, who vanished after entering the consulate October 2.

While the Saudi prosecutor's office did not say specifically that its investigators reached the same conclusion, the statement seemed created to acknowledge the legitimacy of evidence and allegations from Turkey that Khashoggi's killing was planned.

Donald Trump has described the killing of a Saudi journalist as a botched operation and a "bad original concept" as the USA took its first, careful steps toward punishing the Saudis by moving to revoke the visas of the suspects.

But May defended Britain's lucrative weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, saying United Kingdom arms export licensing conditions "are among the strictest in the world".

Erdogan made no mention of an audio recording purported to have captured the slaying, reports CNN.

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"If these individuals now have visas, those visas will be revoked today", May said, adding that she planned to speak to King Salman later Wednesday.

A new surveillance camera image purports to show a Saudi consular vehicle at Istanbul's Belgrad Forest the night before Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed, evidence Turkish authorities have said points to his premeditated murder. It was not clear what was in the suitcases.

Trump offered his most stinging indictment yet of a Saudi effort to silence a dissident journalist, calling the series of events that led to Khashoggi's death "the worst cover up ever".

"I don't think that the country dared to commit such a crime without USA support", Mr. Rouhani said in remarks to his Cabinet in Tehran, according to Iran's Fars News Agency.

Mr Trump said he would work with the US Congress to determine the US response to the Khashoggi matter.

"Haspel, who departed for a secret trip to Turkey on Monday, heard the audio during her visit, according to people familiar with her meetings", said the United States newspaper.

After the killing, many global business leaders and Western officials pulled out of the forum, including the chief executives of JPMorgan Chase, Uber, Siemens and Blackrock.

But Ankara has been holding its own investigation and Erdogan said the killing was meticulously planned, calling for 18 Saudis detained by Saudi authorities to be tried in Turkey. He was told he would need to return later to collect the documents.

Erdogan's call with the crown prince was the first conversation between the two leaders since Khashoggi's death.