Rival crowds fill Yemen streets as president promises: 'We reject war'

Yemenis flooded the streets of Sanaa and Taiz yesterday in rival demonstrations for and against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who gave a guarded welcome to a Gulf Arab plan for a three-month transition of power.

He told supporters in Sanaa any arrangements had to be "within the framework of the Yemen constitution" - language which could mask objections to the plan - and also vowed to "confront challenge with challenge", but without bloodshed.

"Guns can be used today but you cannot use them to rule tomorrow. We reject war," Saleh declared.

Ten soldiers were killed in three attacks by tribesmen and al-Qaeda militants in several provinces, officials said.

In the southern city of Taiz, riot police fired in the air to keep vast, unruly crowds of pro and anti-Saleh demonstrators apart, witnesses said. Ambulance sirens could be heard, but there was no immediate word on casualties.

A sea of anti-Saleh protesters, perhaps in the hundreds of thousands, inundated the streets of Taiz, Yemen's third city and a centre of opposition to the 69-year-old president.

Tens of thousands of Saleh loyalists turned out in Sanaa, the capital, for what they called a "Friday of Reconciliation", waving Yemeni flags and pictures of the president.

Their numbers were matched by protesters demanding Saleh's immediate departure, spilling out of their usual protest area around Sanaa University to mark a "Last Chance Friday" in a nearby street, where there was a heavy security presence.

That raised concern that Saleh's security forces and republican guards might clash with troops loyal to renegade general Ali Mohsen, protecting the protesters in Sanaa.

Demonstrators voiced scepticism about the latest Gulf plan aimed at halting Yemen's descent into chaos. It calls for Saleh to hand power to his vice president as a first step to elections.