Yemen president warns of civil war if he steps down before organising vote

YEMEN’S president has warned his country would descend into civil war if he were forced to quit and the US voiced concern about instability in the Arabian state that has become an al-Qaida stronghold.

Seven weeks of anti-government protests and defections among the ruling elite have piled pressure on Saleh, a US ally against radical Islamist ambitions in the Arabian peninsula, to step down immediately after 32 years in power.

But an aide said he would leave office only after organising parliamentary polls and establishing democratic institutions — by January 2012, a declaration the opposition promptly rejected.