The United Arab Emirates has expressed surprise after US Vice President Joe Biden suggested the Gulf state had armed and financed terrorist groups active in Syria, along with other regional powers.

The United Arab Emirates has expressed surprise after US Vice President Joe Biden suggested the Gulf state had armed and financed terrorist groups active in Syria, along with other regional powers.

Biden's remarks were "amazing and ignore the role of the Emirates in the fight against extremism and terrorism," the UAE minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Mohammad Gargash, said in a statement carried late Saturday by the official WAM news agency.

Gargash asked for Biden to clarify the comments, which he said had given "a false impression about the role of the UAE... at a time when it is actually supporting... efforts to overcome" the militants.

Biden has already apologized to Turkey over the comments suggesting that it was one of the countries in the region that had armed and financed the ISIL group in Syria.