Yemen transfer talks stall as army, militants clash

Talks to end a stand-off over Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule have stopped without a plan to resume, opposition figures said on Sunday, as clashes erupted between the army and militants in the south.
Saleh, who has been alternately conciliatory and defiant, vowed there would be no more concessions to the opposition, who are demanding he step down after 32 years of authoritarian power in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state.
But in a sign that the political back-and-forth on a transfer of power may not be completely dead, the ruling party's governing committee recommended forming a new government to draft a new constitution on the basis of a parliamentary system.
A spokesman for Yemen's main opposition coalition also said the talks had been halted, a development that if it continues would likely raise fears that violence between rival military units could replace the political process.
There was no immediate comment from the government.
Saleh, under pressure from tens of thousands of Yemenis protesting in the streets, convened a meeting of the governing committee of his General People's Congress party on Sunday for a briefing on the status of the dialogue. At the meeting, members pleaded with Saleh to stay in power until 2013, when his term expires, a party source said. One of Saleh's first concessions when protests began in February was to say he would not seek another period in office beyond that date.
Saleh has said he was prepared for a dignified departure but that opposition parties were hijacking the protests to demand he quit without organising a democratic handover.
"I could leave power even in a few hours, on condition of maintaining respect and prestige," Saleh told Al Arabiya television. "I have to take the country to safe shores I'm holding on to power in order to hand it over peaceably."
But he has seemed to suggest he would stay at least for the short term, sprinkling the interview with warnings that Yemen would slide into civil war and fragment along regional and tribal lines if he left power immediately.
Later, he complained he had already offered many concessions but that the demands of the opposition were never-ending.
Militants clashed with the Yemeni army in a southern town, feeding Western and Saudi fears the country could slide into chaos that would benefit a resurgent Yemen-based regional arm of al Qaeda if Saleh is forced out.
The army tried to dislodge a coalition of militants from Jaar in Abyan province after they seized buildings on Saturday and security forces appeared to have deserted the town of several hundred thousand.
One soldier was killed on Sunday and jets flew over the town. But residents said militants appeared to have taken control and the army was withdrawing to Abyan's provincial capital, Zinjibar, where witnesses said security measures had been tightened after militants fired rockets at state buildings.