Sana'a, Yemen - Yemen has agreed to host Somalia's former President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed who resigned last month amid an internal power struggle, but no asylum has been granted to him yet, a senior Yemeni government official said on Wednesday.

The official said the ex-head of state, who arrived in Sana'a on Tuesday, has not applied for political asylum in Yemen.

"He expressed his wish to live in Yemen, but no permanent asylum has been discussed yet," the official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

A Somali diplomat told dpa that Yusuf arrived in Sana'a accompanied by his wife and 17 other family members and security guards.

"I think he wants to stay in Yemen for a short period, and then he might go to the United Kingdom for medical treatment," said the diplomat, asking not to be identified.

"When he resigned, he mentioned Yemen as one of the countries in which he wished to live," the diplomat said.

Yusuf resigned on December 29 after political infighting reached new heights when he defied parliament to sack Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein.

Somalia has been has been wracked by conflict since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

The crisis deepened when Ethiopian forces invaded the country two years ago to help kick out a hardline Islamist regime, sparking a bloody insurgency that has killed over 10,000 civilians. (dpa)