Massive crowds have taken to the streets of Yemen's capital Sanaa to demand the immediate resignation of president Ali Abdullah Saleh, a day after Arab leaders urged him to quit under a Gulf Cooperation Council plan.
Anti-government protesters held a demonstration in the centre of the capital on the weekly day of communal prayers for Muslims.
Loyalists of the president also held a rival demonstration nearby, the AFP news agency reported on Friday, while thousands of anti-government demonstrators also gathered in the southern city of Taiz, an opposition stronghold.
Protesters demanding that Saleh quit dubbed the day "Last Chance Friday", while pro-government demonstrators called it "Reconciliation Friday".
Army and police personnel were deployed in force to prevent any clashes between the two demonstrations, each of which attracted thousands of supporters at squares just a few kilometres apart.
Parliamentary opposition groups and Saleh's government have been mulling a plan formulated by Arab leaders under which Saleh would step down 30 days after the formation of a national unity government, but protesters in Sanaa say they reject such a plan.
"Neighbouring countries; no negotiations, no dialogue," read posters carried by anti-government demonstrators, apparently referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) plan, under which Saleh would transfer powers to Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, the country's vice-president.
The Peaceful Youth Revolt, a group that has helped organise protests against Saleh's government, issued a statement rejecting the GCC initiative, saying "it does not include Saleh's immediate ouster", and "provides safeguards to him, his family and aides who are all killers".
Confrontations have raged on between security forces and anti-Saleh protesters in recent days, with medics and witnesses reporting that eight people have been shot dead since Tuesday, including a passer-by and a policeman.
GCC proposal
On Thursday, the plan formulated by Gulf Arab mediators calling for a three-month transition that would end with a presidential election was made public by a government official.
According to the plan, a unity government led by the opposition would work to organise presidential elections within two months of Saleh's resignation.
The GCC proposed "the formation of a national unity government with 50 per cent held by the ruling party, 40 per cent by the opposition and 10 per cent by other parties," an official said, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.
A day earlier, Saleh said he would "resist" calls to resign and would abide by the constitution in any transfer of power.
Addressing a women's group in Sanaa on Wednesday, he reiterated he would relinquish power only through elections.
"We will continue to resist ... undaunted and committed to constitutional legitimacy, while rejecting the plots and coups," Saba news agency quoted Saleh as saying.
"Let those who want to attain power rely on the ballot box. Change can only come about through elections and within the framework of constitutional legitimacy," Saleh, whose term runs until 2013, said.
Saleh's statement comes after members of the UN Security Council failed to come up with a joint statement on Yemen after adding the country's crisis to their agenda for the first time.
PHOTO CAPTION
Yemeni security forces arrest a man during anti-regime demonstrations in Taez, the second most-populated city of Yemen.
Al-Jazeera