Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has reiterated that he will remain in power until his term ends in 2013, rejecting an opposition plan for him to step aside this year.
'The peaceful and smooth transition of power is not carried out through chaos but through the will of the people expressed through elections,' an official source at the presidential office said in a statement.
The opposition said yesterday that Mr Saleh was sticking to an earlier plan to step down in 2013 but had agreed to a proposal by religious leaders to revamp elections, parliament and the judicial system.
Protests have taken place across Yemen, a country of 23m which borders the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia.
The protestors say they are frustrated with widespread corruption and soaring unemployment in a country where 40% of its population live on $2 a day or less and a third face chronic hunger.
Earlier, witnesses told the Reuters news aganecy that three protestors were wounded yesterday evening when Yemeni security forces fired into the air and used tear gas to disperse demonstrators at a sit-in in the southern port city of Aden.
Protestors were dispersed after they had gathered at a square in the city's Sheikh Othman district following Friday prayers, the witnesses said.
