Yemen urges surrender of Shi'ite rebels

SANAA, Mar 12 (Reuters) Yemen's president declared there was no room for dialogue with Shi'ite rebels fighting government forces in the north and he said their only option was to put down their weapons and surrender.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh's remarks came after rumours spread that the rebels' leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, had proposed talks with the government to end fighting that has killed over 350 rebels and soldiers this year.

''There is no chance for dialogue or mediation,'' the official Saba news agency quoted Saleh as saying in a telephone conference with government, army and tribal leaders in the northern province of Saada.

''They have no option but to surrender themselves to the state; to drop their weapons and submit to law and order. They have no other option if they want to be safe and prevent bloodshed,'' he said.

At least 250 rebels and 105 soldiers have been killed according to estimates by government officials in sporadic but fierce clashes in the mountainous area since the turn of the year.

Sunni Muslims make up most of Yemen's 19 million population while Shi'ite Muslims are a minority.

In 2006, Saleh ordered an amnesty freeing more than 600 Shi'ite Muslim rebels after two years of clashes in which several hundred soldiers and rebels were killed.

But in January he ordered the army to crack down on Houthi and his followers after new attacks on government forces.

''What these terrorist elements want is to topple the republican system ... they falsely raise a deceptive slogan 'death to America, death to Israel,'' Saleh said. ''They are enemies of security, stability and the homeland.'' Sources close to Houthi were not immediately available for comment.

Yemen, ancestral homeland of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, joined the US-led war on terrorism after the Sept 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks in the United States. Houthi's supporters are not linked to al Qaeda.

Reuters PDM DB2248