Yemen tribal heads urge Saleh forces to defect

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Yemen's influential tribal and religious chiefs, siding with a 10-week-old uprising, have urged security forces to defect and called for the "immediate" ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The President "must respond to the demands of the peaceful revolt of the youth, starting with his immediate departure and that of all his aides in the military and security apparati," they said after a meeting late on Thursday.

The meeting, headed by the leader of the Hashed tribe to which the Saleh family belongs, also grouped most members of the ulema Council of Muslim religious leaders in Yemen, which has a deeply tribal society.

Unless the President, who has been in power for three decades, steps down "quickly," the participants will "head up the demonstrations and sit-ins in all the provinces," the leaders said in a statement.

They urged soldiers and police "to join the peaceful revolt," hailing the defections which have already taken place.

In reference to a proposal from Yemen's oil-rich Arab neighbours in the Gulf, the leaders rejected any initiative that does not have Saleh's departure as its starting point.