Saudi Arabia, where sports events for women are banned, will allow females to compete in the Olympic Games for the first time, its embassy in London said in a statement issued on Sunday.

The Saudi Olympic Committee will “oversee participation of women athletes who can qualify”, the BBC quoted the statement as saying.

The issue of women in sport remains extremely sensitive in the ultra-conservative Muslim state, where women are not even allowed to drive cars and the authorities shut down private gyms for women in 2009 and 2010.

Equestrian jumping contestant Dalma Malhas, 18, is likely to be the country’s only female athlete to qualify for this summer’s Games in London which get underway on July 27.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei are the only three countries never to have sent women athletes to the Olympics.

But Qatar has already announced it will send a three-woman team to London.