YEMEN: Face-to-face tension between supporters and opponents of President Ali Abdullah Saleh

AFP - Supporters and opponents of President Ali Abdallah Saleh came out in droves Friday in Sanaa where security forces and the army deployed an unprecedented fear of clashes between rival groups, according to an AFP journalist.

"(...) I agree to sacrifice myself, for my blood and all that is dear to the people," shouted Mr.Saleh in "thanking" her supporters for their support during a brief appearance on the site Sabiine, adjoining his palace.

"I hope that their speech will be wise and responsible" and they do not irresponsible remarks, "he said at the protesters, who had planned for this Friday but canceled a march on the palace Presidential initiative strongly criticized by the entourage of Mr.Saleh.

"The people want Ali Abdullah Saleh", "By our souls and our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for the president," chanted the supporters of the regime, harangued by the imam of the Muslim weekly prayers on Friday Tahrir Square in the center of Sanaa.

"These millions of Yemenis who have poured in from all provinces say yes to President Saleh," he told the imam in his sermon broadcast on state television, accusing the opposition of seeking to lead the country "in the insurgency, bloodshed and civil war. "

The tension was high in the capital, where security forces and the army stepped up checkpoints on roads leading to various meeting places of the demonstrators, dividing the city into two parts: the north dominated by the opposition and the south by the regime.

Around the square of the Change, near the University of Sanaa, where camped for over a month the young protesters demanding the departure of President Saleh, the army, whose officers have joined the protest movement, has established checkpoints at access points of the square.

Units of security forces in turn channeled the flow of regime loyalists, including many tribesmen raised the call of the head of state, and Tahrir squares Sabiine.

The day Friday was named the "Hi's" by the protesters and "Brotherhood" by loyalists.And places of assembly are located in different districts of Sana'a, a few kilometers apart.

But an explosion of violence was feared in the capital where the face of rival army units, partially concurred with the protesters, and the Republican Guard, commanded by the son of head of state, Ahmad.

The protesters, according to an AFP correspondent, Friday expanded their sit-in to the streets around the square of the Change, after renouncing the march on the presidential palace for fear of violence.

Britain has also Thursday urged its nationals to leave immediately Yemen, where the situation "deteriorating rapidly", the Foreign Office in noting its "travel advisories" that Friday's events could escalate into violent confrontations.

The head of state has faced since late January to a popular protest movement calling for his departure and which intensified after the death March 18, 1952 demonstrators by shooting attributed to his supporters.

Of negotiations between President Saleh and the strong man of the army, General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar - who joined the protest after having long been an ally - did not lead to a negotiated transition power, and the President decided to continue.