Sana'a  - Saudi Arabia said on Monday it was willing to see a peaceful end to the fighting between Yemeni army and Shiite rebels near its south-western border, the official SPA news agency reported.

The agency said the Saudi appeal was made by the weekly meeting of the oil-rich country's cabinet, headed by King Abdullah bin Abdul- Aziz.

"The cabinet expressed hope for stopping all forms of violence in Saada, Yemen, resulting from the disorder and rebellion by al- Houthi's followers," the agency said, in the first Saudi official comment on the conflict.

Deadly skirmishes between the army and Shiite rebels have been raging on and off since 2004 in Saada, a remote mountainous province located some 230 kilometres north of Sana'a.

"The cabinet called for containing the disagreement and tackling its results through the Yemeni government's continuing efforts to end the disorder peacefully," SPA added.

Voicing "appreciation" for attempts by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to contain the uprising, the Saudi government condemned the rebels for "violating their agreements with the government and rejecting efforts to save lives and establish peace."

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

The rebels, who belong mostly to the moderate Zaidi sect of Islam, say they were only defending their areas from army offensives.

The conflict began in mid-2004 after Shiite cleric Hussein al- Houthi, established the Believing Youth movement and organized a series of protests in Sana'a and other major cities to voice out their trademark slogan "Death to America ... Death to Israel."

Hussein was killed by the army in September the same year after months of bloody fighting with government forces.

Waves of violent clashes have since left hundreds of government troops and rebels dead, and displaced thousands of civilians from Saada.

Last week, representatives of Yemeni authorities and the rebels began a new round of talks in Saada to revive a fragile Qatari- brokered ceasefire.

Negotiations focus on the ceasefire deal that was inked in Doha last June and put an end to the deadly fighting that lasted for nearly four years between the Yemeni army and the rebels.

A team of Qatari mediators headed by Qatari Assistant Foreign Minister Saif Abu al-Eineen is attending the talks in Saada.

Under the Qatari-sponsored deal, the rebels should leave their locations in the mountains of Saada, while the government in turn would gradually release detained rebels.

The agreement also provides that the current rebel leader Abdul- Malik al-Houthi and his two brothers, Yahay and Abdul-Kareem, would be allowed to live in exile in Qatar. (dpa)