Sana'a, Yemen - Yemeni tribesmen holding a Japanese engineer hostage havemoved him to a desert region in north-central Yemen after pressure for his release mounted, a tribal leader said on Saturday.

"The kidnappers moved the Japanese man to another hideout in al-Jawf province," Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah Sinan told the German Press Agency dpa by phone from Arhab district near the capital Sana'a.

Armed tribesmen from the Qawb clan snatched the 63-year-old engineer during a working visit to a school construction site in Arhab, some 20 kilometres north-east of Sana'a, on November 16.

"They transferred him after they felt mounting pressure from tribal sheiks to set him free," Sinan said.

Al-Jawf, a desert province on the border with Saudi Arabia around 130 kilometres from Sana'a, is a hotbed for al-Qaeda and other militant groups.

Sinan said the clan wants authorities to release a fellow clansman who has been in police custody since 2005 over links to al-Qaeda.

He said the man, Abdullah Hussien Qawb, was arrested on his return from from Iraq, after he participated in what officials called insurgency acts. (dpa)