SANAA: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has moved a step closer to handing power to his deputy by accepting a U.N. formula to ease a transition, the EU envoy to Yemen was quoted by the state news agency Saba as saying. Heavy fighting between Saleh’s supporters and opponents spread through Yemen’s third-largest city of Taiz, some 200 km south of the capital Sanaa, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens Wednesday, according to medical officials.

Saleh, 69 and in power for 33 years, has three times agreed to give up power only to pull back at the last minute, defying anti-government protesters inspired by demonstrations across the Arab world.
Michele Cervone d’Urso, the European Union resident ambassador, was quoted by Saba as saying he believed the Yemeni leader had now accepted a U.N. transition plan.

“We are convinced that we are on the verge of reaching an agreement soon and above all else the matter calls for political commitment. We hope that Eid al-Adha will be an occasion to announce to Yemen and the world that Yemen has passed toward a new stage,” d’Urso told Saba.

D’Urso asked the opposition to return home before the holiday next week, so that a deal could be finalized. Opposition leaders are in Kuwait to drum up support for their movement.

A spokesman for a Yemeni opposition council treated the development with caution. “We heard good things from the diplomats, but actions speak louder than words. We are not optimistic right now but if the Gulf initiative is signed we will be more optimistic,” said Houriya Mashhur.

Ruling Yemen since 1978, Saleh has clung to power despite an assassination attempt that sent him abroad for three months for medical care and nine months of street protests.

Neighboring oil giant Saudi Arabia and the international community fear growing lawlessness in Yemen is giving Al-Qaeda’s regional wing scope to plan and potentially launch attacks in the region.

In Taiz, fighting raged between government troops and dissident army units on the city’s main street Wednesday. Eight civilians, including a 13-year-old boy, and two gunmen were killed and 43 people wounded, mostly civilians, according to medical officials. The Interior Ministry said five Yemeni soldiers were also killed in the clashes.

Yemen’s Defense Ministry blamed the violence on the opposition and said a mediation council had managed to broker a truce. Previous cease-fires have broken down within the hour.
There was no immediate Yemeni government reaction to d’Urso’s remarks. But there have been clear indications of progress.

Deputy Information Minister Abdo al-Janadi said Sunday the ruling party was close to announcing Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi would succeed Saleh.
He said Hadi would return from the United States Thursday to wind up talks with the opposition. He added: “He will sign the Gulf initiative and the mechanism for its operation in the near future.”

U.N. envoy Jamal Benomar visited Yemen in September to try to devise a way of implementing a Gulf-brokered power handover and overcome political deadlock that has paralyzed the Arabian Peninsula state and pushed it to the verge of civil war. But he left empty-handed after two weeks of shuttle diplomacy between the opposition and the ruling party.