US presses Saleh to hand over power in Yemen

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WASHINGTON: The White House called Monday for an "immediate transition" of power in Yemen, where the United States fears Al Qaeda could exploit political turmoil and strengthen its presence.

After four months of deadly unrest, Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year-old regime was teetering even before the president was wounded in an attack on his palace and flown late Saturday to neighboring Saudi Arabia for treatment.

"We believe that an immediate transition is in the best interests of the people and the best interest of maintaining stability in obviously a very unstable situation," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking alongside French counterpart Alain Juppe at a Washington press conference, made it clear Saleh should leave power but stopped short of expressly ordering him to do so.

Washington supports a deal, brokered by the regional Gulf Cooperation Council bloc, that would see Saleh cede power to an interim administration within 30 days, in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

Saleh, a wily operator who since 1978 has bought off tribal loyalties and stitched them together into a governable framework, has refused to sign the accord and warned that his ouster would only serve to boost Al Qaeda.

"Our position is that we support the agreement that President Saleh had talked about signing several times and didn't," Carney said.

"We want a peaceful and orderly transition that's consistent with the Yemeni constitutional process. Our position hasn't changed."

A top aide said Monday that 69-year-old Saleh, who was recuperating in a Riyadh military hospital, planned to return within days, a move likely to set off another round of unrest in the violence-plagued nation.

In Sanaa, a fragile truce held despite a deadly sniper attack on loyalists of a powerful tribal chief blamed for Friday's bomb attack which wounded Saleh as he prayed inside a mosque in his compound.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Yemen's capital on Sunday to cheer what they said was the end of Saleh's regime.

The situation presents US partner Saudi Arabia and Washington with a conundrum as Saleh has been a key ally in the fight against Al Qaeda's Yemen-based franchise, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. (AFP)