Yemen unrest: Police open fire on protesters in Taiz

Taiz saw a massive rally against President Saleh on Friday

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At least one person has been killed and scores injured at a protest in the Yemeni city of Taiz where police opened fire, residents say.

Putting the number of injured at 100, a doctor said police had used live rounds, tear gas and truncheons to try to break up the protest.

Protests to demand President Ali Abdullah Saleh's resignation have gripped Yemen since February.

Mr Saleh said he was ready to discuss a "peaceful transition of power".

In office for more than three decades, he announced earlier he would not seek another term in office.

Yemen, the Arab world's most impoverished nation, is one of about a dozen countries in the Arab world and broader Midde East to have seen anti-government unrest this year.

Transition plan

Taiz, a city of nearly half a million people 200km (125 miles) south of the capital Sanaa, has seen massive demonstrations against the president.

Eyewitnesses told AFP news agency police had shot dead a young man who was tearing up a poster of the president.

They continued to fire as security forces pushed back the demonstrators to a square where they had been holding a sit-in as part of nationwide protests.

One activist, Bushra al-Maqtari, told Reuters news agency security forces were backed by tanks.

"Armoured vehicles and tanks are surrounding us," she said.

"They have spent three hours firing tear gas and bullets [in the air] in an effort to break up the protest."

On Saturday, the opposition coalition Common Forum called on the president to hand over power to his deputy, Vice-President Abdu Rabu Hadi.

Common Forum, which includes the five biggest opposition groups in Yemen, offered a five-point plan for the hand-over:

• President Saleh resigns and is replaced by Mr Hadi

• Mr Hadi announces a restructuring of the security forces to make them accountable to the government

• An interim government is created based on national reconciliation

• A new electoral commission is established

• Civil liberties are boosted and an investigation is launched into the killing of protesters

Speaking at a meeting in Sanaa with representatives from Taiz Province on Sunday, President Saleh called on Common Forum to "end the crisis through calling off protests and removing roadblocks".

Any transition, he said, would have to be made "through constitutional ways".