Sana'a, Yemen  - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Friday renewed his government's offer to end the fighting with Shiite in the north-western province of Saada.

"We give those elements another chance to resort to peace and return to the right path," Saleh said in a speech marking the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.

Saleh said the ceasefire offer "is based on unconditional commitment" by the rebels, known as Houthis, to terms of a six-point peace initiative announced by the government last week.

He said if rebels rejected peace and continued the fighting, "we will face this sedition in a decisive way and with all capabilities we have got."

Authorities offered last week six conditions for halting the massive military attack against the rebels in Saada, some 240 kilometres north-west of Sana'a.

The conditions included the rebels' withdrawal from all districts of Saada and mountainous sites and giving up military hardware they have seized from the army, the official Saba news agency said.

Also among the conditions was a call for the rebels to clarify the fate of a German family of five and a British engineer taken hostage in Saada in June.

The six people were among a group of foreign hostages - seven Germans, a Briton and a South Korean. They were abducted by armed men in Saada, where the rebels operate.

Three of them, two German women and a South Korean female teacher, were found dead two days after the abduction.

The rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi has rejected the six terms, saying that the government was seeking to "mislead the public opinion."

He called on the government to comply with the ceasefire agreement inked by the two parties in the Qatari capital Doha in June 2007.

Scores of insurgents and civilians were killed since the army began its onslaught on strongholds of the Houthi rebel group on the border with Saudi Arabia on August 11.

The offensive included aerial, artillery and missile strikes on strongholds of the rebels in strategic heights overlooking the borders with Saudi Arabia. (dpa)