Clashes erupt hours before planned truce

Fighting broke out north of Yemens capital and in the centre of the country on Sunday, killing more than 20 people.

The clashes occurred hours before a planned halt to the fighting aimed at facilitating talks to end the year-long war, Reuters reports.

Yemen's government and its Iran-allied Houthi enemies were supposed to implement the UN-backed "cessation of hostilities" from midnight (2100 GMT) before peace negotiations could begin in Kuwait on April 18.

The UN hoped the negotiation would lead to a more concrete, formal ceasefire with peace-building steps as the war in Yemen had claimed more than 6,200 people, drawn in rival regional powers Saudi Arabia and Iran and tipped one of the Arab world's poorest countries into humanitarian crisis.

But hours before the planned halt in fighting, heavy battles flared between forces loyal to Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Houthi fighters in al-Maton, a town north of the capital Sanaa on Sunday.

Several fighters were killed and many wounded, local residents said, without giving precise figures.

Fighting still continued in the southwestern city of Taiz.

Hadi, whose forces were backed by a Saudi-led military coalition, met his advisers in Riyadh on Sunday to discuss the impending halt in fighting, Yemeni officials said.

They said the Houthis had not yet informed the UN about their latest position on the agreement to stop fighting. A spokesman for the Houthis could not immediately be reached for comment.

The UN Yemen envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, had urged parties to the war to ``engage constructively'' in the new round of peace talks in Kuwait.