Yemen president will not extend term past 2013

Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, facing demands that he quit, said he will freeze constitutional changes that would allow him to be president for life and had put off a controversial April poll.

2 February 2011, 12:00am

"No to hereditary rule and no to life presidency," Saleh said during an emergency session of parliament and the consultative council ahead of a "day of rage" civil society groups and opposition leaders have called for Thursday.

Saleh came to power as president of North Yemen in 1978.

Yemen suffers from high population growth, unemployment running at 40%, rising food prices and acute levels of malnutrition