Ali Abdullah Saleh Live Blog

The government in Damascus has agreed to accept UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's six-point plan on ending the bloodshed in Syria, the former UN chief's spokesman said on Tuesday.

"The Syrian government has written to the Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan accepting his six-point plan, endorsed by the United Nations Security Council," spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said in a statement.

"Mr Annan views this as an important initial step that could bring an end to the violence and the bloodshed, provide aid to the suffering, and create an environment conducive to a political dialogue that would fulfill the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people," he said.

Annan has written to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad asking Damascus to "put its commitments into immediate effect".

Annan's plan calls for a UN-supervised halt to fighting, with the government pulling troops and heavy weapons out of protest cities, a daily two-hour humanitarian ceasefire and access to all areas affected by the fighting.

The US has raised concerns with Yemen's president that members of the former government were disrupting the country's political transition, the White House said.

John Brennan, President Barack Obama's assistant for homeland security and counter-terrorism, called President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi to discussion the situation.

It came at end of a week that saw cabinet members loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh walk out of a cabinet meeting in what the opposition portrayed as an attempt to bring down the unity government.

Tens of thousands of protesters have streamed into city centres all over Yemen, demanding that their ex-president be put on trial.

Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down last month in a deal that gave him immunity from prosecution, but he is still in Yemen.

Some protesters on Friday carried posters showing Saleh with a noose around his neck. Yemen's government has said at least 2,000 people have been killed in a year of turmoil. 

Many in Yemen demand cancellation of the immunity agreement so that Saleh and his relatives can be put on trial for the killings.

Saleh was expected to leave Yemen after he stepped down. Instead, critics say he is still interfering in the government, working through loyalist Cabinet ministers as well as relatives and cronies holding top military positions.

Thousands of Yemeni families have fled their homes because of tribal clashes in the north and battles between the military and al-Qaeda fighters in the south, a UN agency has said.

Violence continues to rage across Yemen after more than a year of protests led to the ousting of longtime Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Al-Qaeda has taken advantage of the chaos and seized several towns in the south that Yemeni forces have struggled to retake while a long-standing conflict involving rebels in the north has only gotten worse.

Yemen's military launched airstrikes on Friday targeting al-Qaeda positions in the central city of Bayda located some 100km south of the capital Sanaa, according to military officials. Thick white smoke billowed over the city but there were no immediate reports of casualties. [AP]