The US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has strongly called for an end to the more than seven-month-old dispute between a Saudi-led bloc of countries and Qatar, warning it is harming regional security.

Tillerson, who was in Kuwait for a meeting of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group, said his country was working to settle the Gulf dispute.

“This type of division is counterproductive to the security of the region,” he was quoted as saying by Gulf Times.

Qatar is home to the largest US airbase in the Middle East, Al Udeid, which houses some 10,000 American troops and has been key in the war against IS. Qatar had recently said that it was looking to expand the size of the base in order to make it more family friendly.

He urged allies to stay focused on fighting the Islamic State group, saying Turkey's military offensive in northern Syria had ‘detracted’ from the anti-militant battle.

The militant group has lost much of the territory it once controlled when it seized large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014.

“The end of major combat operations doesn’t mean we’ve achieved the enduring defeat of ISIS,” Tillerson said.

Iraq declared victory over IS in December, but the extremist group still has a presence in Syria, where the US-led coalition has backed a Kurdish-Arab alliance fighting the jihadists.