Yemens president meets US envoy, agrees to quit

President Ali Abdullah Saleh told the US ambassador he would sign a deal to step down, a US official said. The embattled leader, who has made that pledge several times before, spoke as violence shook his capital.Saleh informed Ambassador Gerald Feierstein of a new cease-fire, but clashes on the streets threw that into doubt. Activists said seven protesters were killed and 10 wounded.It was the first meeting between Saleh and a US ambassador since Saleh returned from Saudi Arabia last month, said US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. Saleh left Yemen after an attack on his compound in early June left him badly wounded.Nine months of mass protests calling for his resignation have moved his powerful Arab neighbors, with US backing, to propose a plan allowing Saleh to step down in exchange for immunity from prosecution. That reflected a reversal for the U.S., which up to then had backed Saleh as an ally in its fight against al-Qaida in Yemen.Nuland said Saleh confirmed he would sign the Gulf Cooperation Council plan for him to step down a claim he has made several times this year but then backed down at the last minute, infuriating both opponents and former allies.She also said that Saleh confirmed that a cease-fire had been arranged with the opposition demonstrators, as announced on Yemens state news agencys website.On a statement on the website, Yemeni Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi said that a cease-fire agreement was reached with the aim to lift checkpoints, barricades and open schools ... to return normal life to the capital. But late into Tuesday evening, troops were still firing into crowds of protesting civilians.The protesters marched through the streets surrounding Change Square, a central intersection where the uprising against Saleh started in February.The shooting broke out between Salehs forces and renegade troops loyal to Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who defected to the opposition and whose forces protect the protesters.There were concerns that the intensified fighting could undermine U.S. and Saudi efforts to fight Yemens al-Qaida branch, considered by the U.S. to be the most dangerous of the terror networks affiliates after it plotted two failed attacks on American soil in recent years. Also Tuesday, a Yemeni military plane crashed before landing at the al-Ammad air base near the southern city of Aden.Four people on board were killed and 11 injured, according to a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. The official said a technical problem might have caused the crash. He said there were eight Syrians and seven Yemenis on board.