Sana'a, Yemen - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Thursday called for calm after a series of violent protests in the south of the country that he said was refuelled by the "culture of hatred".

"Setting fires is useless," Saleh said in a speech to a meeting attended by lawmakers and member of the government at the Presidential Palace in Sana'a. "Fires would burn the hands of those who set them," he said, in reference to a wave of violent protests and riots in several southern cities.

Violence erupted more on March 30 after disgruntled youths, complaining about what they called discriminatory policies against southerners in an army recruitment programme, took to the streets in several southern cities.

"Those who have a real demand or compliant should go to the Parliament instead of demonstrations and burning tyres on the streets," the Yemeni leader said.

He warned that attempts to "tamper with the national security and unity are not acceptable."

"What is happening is a result of the culture of hatred," he added, asking leaders of the southern opposition to resort to elections not violence "if they want power."

"Power is gained through the pool s, not anything else," Saleh said.

The Yemeni leader said his government would introduce several administrative reforms, including the election of provincial governors of the country's 22 provinces.

He said necessary amendments into the election-related laws would be made to facilitate the elections of governors on April 27.

Yemeni Prime Minister Ali Mujawar said in a speech to the meeting that 22 police soldiers had been injured and 75 shops and government offices were vandalized during the riots. He did not mention the casualty toll among protesters.

Mujawar said security forces arrested 283 protesters, and freed 161 of them later.

The clashes were the latest in a series of confrontations between police and southerners staging protests.

In the last three months of 2007, at least 16 people were killed and dozens injured in similar violent clashes.

The violence highlights the increasing tensions between southern and northern Yemen nearly 14 years after a civil war that ended with the defeat of the southern military by northern forces.

North and South Yemen were united in 1990. In 1994, southern leaders announced the secession of the south, and battled northern forces led by President Ali Abdullah Saleh for 10 weeks in a civil war that ended in their defeat.

In the aftermath of the war, Saleh announced a general amnesty, which applied to nearly 8,000 southerners who left the country after the war.

Most of the breakaway politicians who led the secession attempt were leaders of the communist Yemeni Socialist Party that ruled Southern Yemen for nearly 20 years, and shared authority with Saleh's GPC party in a unity government after 1990. (dpa)