There have been weeks of protests demanding the president's resignation Monday, 14 March 2011
Yemen protest attacked by police
There have been weeks of protests demanding the president's resignation Police in Yemen have attacked a camp of anti-government demonstrators in the centre of the capital, Sanaa.
Reports say there were clashes in Tahrir Square when police fired tear gas, water cannon and live bullets. One protester is said to have been killed and hundreds injured.
The clashes came after the US urged opposition groups to take up President Ali Abdullah Saleh's call for talks.
Weeks of protest against his 32-year rule have eft about 30 people dead.
Middle East unrest: Yemen 
President Ali Abdullah Saleh in power since 1978Population 24.3m; land area 536,869 sq kmThe population has a median age of 17.9, and a literacy rate of 61%Youth unemployment is 15%Gross national income per head is $1,060 (World Bank 2009)Protests: Country-by-country
Witnesses said hundreds of police invaded the area where protesters have been camping for weeks.
Doctors in the camp said police were blocking medical teams from entering the area and one person died from a shot to the head.
"It felt like a massacre, there were police teams in official uniforms and plain clothes police and they were attacking the protesters," one witness told the Reuters news agency. "They used teargas and gunfire and chased some people out into the streets."
On Thursday, President Saleh announced plans to change the constitution to move to a parliamentary system.
In a live televised address, he said a referendum would be held this year on measures including a new election law.
However, opposition groups said their demands were "bigger than that".
They have also dismissed Mr Saleh's earlier promise not to seek re-election after his current term ends in 2013.
The Yemeni republic was created by the merger of North and South Yemen in 1990. Before that, Mr Saleh led the Yemen Arab Republic - the northern part of present-day Yemen - since 1978 when he came to power in a military coup. Direct presidential elections were first held in 1999.
Although nominally a multi-party system, Yemeni politics has been dominated by Mr Saleh's General People's Congress since unification.
Yemen is one of a number of countries in the North African and Middle East region that have seen increasing unrest since the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia were ousted in popular revolts earlier this year.
President Saleh on Thursday promised to protect demonstrators.
"We have ordered the security forces to continue to provide protection for all the protesters, whether they are supporters of our legitimacy or from the opposition," he said.
The president faces a separatist movement in the south, a branch of al-Qaeda, and a periodic conflict with Shia tribes in the north.
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