Sana'a - Yemen's ruling General People's Congress party (GPC) and opposition parties agreed on Wednesday to postpone the legislative elections for two years to reform the electoral system, Parliament sources said.

The sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa the House of Deputies, the upper chamber of the Parliament, would hold a meeting Thursday to vote on a constitutional amendment to prolong the its tenure for two more years.

Sana'a, Yemen- Six African migrants drowned and 11 were reported missing and presumed dead after traffickers forced passengers overboard a boat in deep water off Yemen's south-eastern coast, the United Nations refugee agency reported Tuesday.

The boat was carrying 52 passengers - 40 Somalis and 12 Ethiopians - across the Gulf of Aden, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.

Yemeni authorities recovered six bodies near Huseysa, about 500 kilometres east of the southern port city of Aden, according to the statement.

Sana'a, Yemen - Yemen has agreed to provide French navy ships operating in the EU-led anti-piracy mission off Somalia with logistical services at its ports, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Saturday.

Kouchner, who paid a one-day visit to Sana'a, made the announcement after a meeting with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

"France and Yemen will exert joint efforts to fight piracy. It is unacceptable to let pirates attack cruise and commercial ships," the French minister said.

Sana'a, Yemen - The leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Nasser al-Wahishi, called on Yemeni tribes on Thursday to rebel against the government and to confront security forces pursuing al-Qaeda members in their areas.

In an audiotape posted on Islamist web sites, al-Wahishi linked the clampdown on Jihadists in five desert provinces to the deployment of Western navy forces in the Gulf of Aden to fight piracy.

Sana'a, Yemen  - A Russian Navy ship on Wednesday handed over to Yemeni authorities 10 Somali suspected pirates it had captured off a Yemeni island in the Indian Ocean, security sources said.

Yemeni coast guard officers received the suspects at the south-eastern port of Mukalla, the sources said.

A Russian nuclear-powered warship captured the 10 pirates in two speed boats and a mother ship as they tried to hijack an Iranian fishing trawler south east of the Socotra Island in the Indian Ocean on February 12, according to the Russian Navy.

Riyadh  - Saudi Arabia took custody of al-Qaeda commander Mohammed al-Awfi from Yemeni authorities on Tuesday, according to Saudi security sources.