Saleh balks at deal to end Yemin stalemate

A GULF-BROKERED deal to ease Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh out of power is nearing collapse after he refused to sign, raising the threat of increased instability in the state.

The pact would have made Mr Saleh, who has been in power for 33 years, the third ruler ousted by a wave of popular pro-democracy uprisings sweeping the Arab world. He had been due to sign the deal on Saturday.

Yemen's opposition, furious at the last-minute change of heart that it described as political manoeuvring, said it was considering ramping up pressure on the president to step aside after three months of street protests.

"We are studying the options of escalation and waiting for a US-European stance on Saleh's refusal to sign," a senior opposition leader said.

The Gulf powers who brokered the plan to nudge Mr Saleh from office ended a meeting over the crisis in Saudi Arabia yesterday without a deal or a strategy for reaching one.

"The council expresses its hope of removing all the obstacles that still block a final agreement, and its secretary general will head to Sanaa for that purpose," a statement by foreign ministers of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) said.

A Gulf source said a signing ceremony in Riyadh yesterday in which the opposition had been due to seal the deal was postponed after Mr Saleh's refusal.

The United States and Saudi Arabia want the standoff resolved to avert chaos that could make a Yemen wing of al-Qaeda a greater threat.

GCC mediators told Yemen's opposition on Saturday that Mr Saleh had been willing to sign the deal as leader of his party, but had refused in his capacity as president.

"This is very typical Saleh. He puts off the inevitable," said Dubai-based security analyst Theodore Karasik. "I think some type of pressure is going to have to be applied."

Protesters say they will stay on the streets until Mr Saleh leaves. They also called for him to be put on trial for corruption and the deaths of 144 protesters.