Yemen foils oil refinery attacks -- TV reports

DUBAI, Sep 15 (Reuters) Yemen killed four suicide car bombers and foiled attacks on two oil refineries today, Arab television stations reported.

Al Arabiya television, quoting a Yemeni official, said one Yemeni policeman was killed.

No further details were immediately available.

Impoverished Yemen has vowed to crack down on attacks by al Qaeda-linked militants and kidnappings of foreigners by disgruntled tribesmen.

Yemen, a small oil producer, is due to hold presidential and municipal elections on September. 20.

The Arab country, ancestral home of Saudi-born al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, joined the US-led war on terrorism after the September. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

Militant attacks have included the bombing in 2000 of the US warship USS Cole and an attack in 2002 on the French supertanker Limburg.

The country on the southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula has been widely seen in the West as a haven for Muslim militants, including al Qaeda supporters.

Western diplomats say some of the militants are war veterans who fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Many are protected by powerful tribal leaders in mountain regions outside the central government's control.

REUTERS MQA PM1216