Sana'a, Yemen  - Yemen's parliament on Saturday lifted for the second time the immunity of a lawmaker whose brother is leading Shiite rebels battling government forces in northern the Arab state.

MP Yahya al-Houthi, who is now in Germany seeking political asylum, is the brother of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, leader of the Believing Youth rebel group that has been battling army forces near borders with Saudi Arabia since mid-2004.

The parliament revoked al-Houthi's immunity for the first time in February 2007.

The second motion was made under a request from the Justice Ministry to pave the way for charging al-Houthi, the official Saba news agency reported.

Al-Houthi would face charges of "taking part in forming an armed gang, instigating strife and supporting terrorist and sabotage acts in Saada province," according to the agency.

In March last year, the government asked Interpol to help capture the fugitive MP.

Sporadic but fierce clashes between the Shiite rebels and the army have left hundreds of soldiers and insurgents dead since the fighting erupted after Yahya's eldest brother Hussein Badruddin al-Houthi first established the group in mid-2004.

Hussein was killed by the army in September 2004.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed last month to impose law and order in the north-western province of Saada, a remote mountainous province located the border with Saudi Arabia, some 230 kilometres north of the capital Sana'a.

Authorities accuse the rebels of trying to reinstall the imamate rule that was toppled by a republican revolution in northern Yemen in 1962.

Qatari mediators failed last month to revive a fragile Qatari- brokered ceasefire inked in Doha last June. (dpa)