JERUSALEM, July 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday he would not avoid talking about human rights when he visits Saudi Arabia on the second leg of his Middle East trip and stressed his position on the murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi was "absolutely" clear.

Biden heads to the kingdom on Friday where he will seek to boost the flow of oil and reset the relationship with a key Arab country without appearing to embrace a crown prince accused of human rights abuses.

The trip represents a delicate balancing act for a president who less than two years ago promised to make Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, a "pariah" on the international stage.

That promise was prompted by the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Khashoggi, a Saudi insider-turned-critic, in a plot that U.S. intelligence says was directly approved by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who denies involvement.

However, Biden and his senior aides ultimately decided that the United States’ security and energy relationship with Riyadh was too important to isolate the Sunni Muslim powerhouse. Biden has said his aim was to reorient — but not rupture — a strategic relationship that has weathered many storms over 80 years.

"I have never been quiet about talking about human rights," Biden told a news conference following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid in Jerusalem. "The reason I am going to Saudi Arabia though, is much broader, it's to promote U.S. interests," he said.

"And so there are so many issues at stake, I want to make clear that we can continue to lead in the region and not create a vacuum, a vacuum that is filled by China and/or Russia."

Biden's visit, during which he is expected to meet King Salman as well as Crown Prince Mohammed ahead of a summit with Arab leaders on Saturday, has faced opposition in the United States given Khashoggi's killing by Saudi agents at the kingdom's Istanbul consulate.

Biden said his views on the killing were "absolutely, positively clear."

"I always bring up human rights but my position on Khashoggi has been so clear. If anyone doesn't understand it in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, they haven't been around for a while."