Yemeni police struggle to break up clashing protesters

Hundreds of anti-government demonstrators clashed with supporters of Yemen's president on Monday south of the capital, with both sides hurling rocks as protests escalated in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state.

Witnesses said police had fired shots into the air but were unable to control the crowds in the industrial town of Taiz, while in Sanaa protesters inspired by an uprising in Egypt vowed to march to police intelligence headquarters.

"Hey Ali, get out, get out," anti-government protesters shouted at Sanaa University, referring to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a U.S. ally against al-Qaeda's resurgent Yemen-based wing. "There is no solution except to leave."

Police stood between around 500 anti-government protesters and a rival group of around 100 supporters of Saleh at Sanaa University, a frequent launch pad for demonstrations, to prevent skirmishes.

Anti-government protests gained momentum in recent weeks, sometimes drawing tens of thousands of people, and the threat of further turmoil prompted Saleh to offer significant concessions, including a pledge to step down in 2013.

The protests have turned to clashes in the last four days, with rival groups beating each other with batons and fists. On Sunday, police forcibly broke up a march in the capital.

But analysts say Yemen is not yet at the point of an Egypt-style revolt, and any upheaval would likely unfold more slowly, and perhaps with more bloodshed, in a heavily armed country where tribal allegiances run strong.

Protesters in Sanaa said they were demanding the release of activists arrested over four straight days of rallies, including around 220 held in Taiz, whom the opposition said had already been freed.

Human Rights Watch criticized police for what they described as unnecessary brutality that included using electroshock tasers against demonstrators.

Although pro- and anti-government protesters have clashed in recent days, police had generally stayed out of the fray in Sanaa, but crackdowns have been stronger outside the capital.

US trip postponed

Saleh, who has ruled fractious Yemen for 32 years, postponed a visit to Washington as the opposition agreed to resume talks with the government.

"President Ali Abdullah Saleh has decided to postpone a visit to the United States... scheduled for late February due to the current developments in the region," an official in his office was quoted by state news agency Saba on Sunday.

The two countries would set a new date, the statement added.

The Yemeni opposition meanwhile agreed to resume talks suspended since October with the government, as pressure rose on the regime in the wake of protests calling for the president's overthrow.

The Common Forum, an alliance of parliamentary opposition groups, is "ready to sign a framework agreement this week... on (resuming) the national dialogue," it said, in a statement received by AFP.

It said the draft deal calls for the formation of a unity government and the inclusion in the dialogue of the secessionist Southern Movement, the Shiite rebels of northern Yemen and opposition members in exile.

Learning lesson from Tunisia and Egypt

Talks would resume from the point at which they were suspended on Oct. 31, said the Common Forum, grouping al-Islah (Reform), which is Yemen's main Islamist opposition, the Yemeni Socialist Party and other smaller factions.

"We urge the authorities to learn a lesson from what happened in Tunisia and Egypt," where massive revolts by the people forced out their respective leaders, it said.

The opposition warned of a "popular uprising" in Yemen, a country they said was weighed down by "corruption, poverty, unemployment, repression, injustice and tyranny."

The Common Forum urged Saleh to prove his goodwill by dismissing his family members and relatives holding top posts in institutions such as the Yemeni army, police, government and regional councils.

"No dialogue, no talks"

Under opposition pressure to stand down, Saleh said on Feb. 2 his son would not succeed him.

He also announced a freeze on constitutional amendments that could have enabled him to stay in office for life.

And the president put off a controversial plan to hold an April election without a promised dialogue on reform.

He has appealed for an end to street protests.

But on Sunday, hundreds took to the streets in Crater, a district of the main southern city of Aden, protesting against dialogue with Saleh's regime and calling for its overthrow, witnesses told AFP.

"No dialogue, no talks," they chanted. "The people want to topple the regime." "Out, out, Ali."

A security official said: "Security services did not stop them but were heavily deployed to prevent riots and vandalism."

Elected to a seven-year term in September 2006, Saleh has urged the opposition to resume dialogue aimed at forging a government of national unity.

The current parliament's term was extended by two years to April under a February 2009 agreement between the ruling General People's Congress and the opposition to allow time for dialogue on political reform.

But the talks have stalled since the government decided to hold a legislative election on Apr. 27 without waiting for the dialogue process to run its course.

And a special committee set up to oversee reform has met only once.

Besides poverty and unemployment in the Arab world's poorest country, Saleh's government is grappling a secessionist movement in the south, rebellion in the north and a regrouping of al-Qaeda on its soil.