Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said that he will step down from power within the "coming days".

也门总统阿里·阿卜杜拉·萨利赫称，他“过几天”将会卸权。

Mr Saleh has appeared to be ready to resign several times, but pulled out of deals to stand down（退出） at the last moment.

He returned to Yemen unexpectedly last month from Saudi Arabia where he had been receiving treatment after his office was shelled in June.

He is faced with protests and an insurrection（暴动，叛乱） by renegade（叛徒） army units.

He has also repeatedly refused to sign a transition deal brokered¹ by Gulf² states, and first presented in March, whereby he would hand over power to his vice-president in return for immunity³ from prosecution⁴.

But Yemen's deputy information minister told the BBC that Mr Saleh was no longer clinging to power.

'Reject power'

In Mr Saleh's speech, broadcast on state television, he gave no precise date for standing⁵ down.

"I reject power and I will continue to reject it, and I will be leaving power in the coming days," he said.

"It's not because I crave⁶（渴望） power, I reject power and I will leave it in the coming days and leave it behind," Mr Saleh said.

"There are sincere men, whether they be military or civilian," who are capable of governing Yemen, he added.

But the speech appears not to have referred to the Gulf-mediated transition deal.

Indeed in his first interview since returning to Yemen in late September, Mr Saleh said he would not stand down as promised if his opponents were allowed to stand in elections to succeed him.

His rivals for political power are currently Gen Ali Mohsin al-Ahmar, who declared his support for the protest movement in March, and the powerful Ahmar family.

Anti-government protesters have been camped out in an area of the capital Sanaa - dubbed⁷（被称为） Change Square - since January, demanding an end to President Saleh's rule.