Saudi Arabia announced Sunday that women will be given the vote by 2015, a move that analysts see as the conservative kingdom's attempt to appease the wave of revolt sweeping the Arab world.

King Abdullah issued a decree that allowing women in his kingdom to vote and run for the local elections scheduled on 2015.

Yet the new reform measures, which Middle East experts said were presumably cleared with the religious establishment, fall short of full equality for Saudi women.

Government-run media indicate the new policy will not extend to letting women serve in the Cabinet.

According to The Associated Press, the religious police will continue to ensure no women will be allowed to venture out in the streets unescorted by a male family member.

Claiming the authority of Islamic Shariah law, Saudi Arabia still forbid women to travel out of the country on their own or drive vehicles.

In issuing the decree, Abdullah said, "Balanced modernization, which falls within our Islamic values, is an important demand in an era where there is no place for defeatist or hesitant people."

"Muslim women in our Islamic history have demonstrated positions that expressed correct opinions and advice," the king was reported by AP as saying in acknowledging the changing role of Saudi women.

In Washington, a spokesman from the U.S. National Security Council praised the initiatives as enabling Saudi women "to participate in the decisions that affect their lives and communities."

But Saudi women's rights activist Maha al-Qahtani lamented that the new royal decree seemed to ignore the immediate demands of many Saudi feminists. Al-ahtani was detained last year for defying the ban on women driving, according to AP.

"We didn't ask for politics. We asked for our basic rights. We demanded that we be treated as equal citizens and lift the male guardianship over us," al-Qahtani stressed.