Sana'a: The Yemeni government said on Saturday it would not tolerate any "terrorist" activities on its territories after Somali insurgents said they were ready to send reinforcements to Al Qaida in Yemen.
"Rather than threatening to export terrorism to other [countries], they ought to help achieve security and stability in their own war-torn country," Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al Qirbi told Yemen's news agency.
Somalia's Islamist rebel group Al Shabaab said on Friday it was prepared to send fighters to help Al Qaida in Yemen if the United States carried out strikes.
"Yemen will not tolerate any terrorist elements on its territories and will be ready to retaliate against anyone looking to tamper with its security and stability," Al Qirbi said.
Retaliation
The Islamist group said it was retaliating to US support for the Yemeni government.
Yemen security officials yesterday said several hundred extra troops were deployed to two mountainous eastern provinces that are Al Qaida's main strongholds in the country.
The deployment appeared to be an attempt to beef up the government presence in Marib and Jouf provinces, where Al Qaida has killed a number of top security officials in recent months.
A Yemeni official welcomed British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's invitation to host a meeting in London on January 28 to discuss countering radicalisation in Yemen.
"This is a step in the right direction to intensify international efforts to support Yemen's development," an official source told Saba News.
"Eradicating poverty, extremism and unemployment in developing societies is the way to end radicalism and ensure a suitable environment for such phenomenon is not created."
Brown said on Friday Yemen presented a regional and global threat as an incubator and potential safe haven for terrorism.
Compounding the challenge from Al Qaida, Yemen faces a separatist rebellion in the south and an insurgency by rebels from the Zaidi sect in the north.
The rebels yesterday said they are ready for talks with Sana'a once the government declares an end to hostilities.
"When the war stops we will be ready for dialogue," rebel spokesman Mohammad Abdul Salaam told reporters by telephone, adding that he was reacting to an appeal from President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
In an article published on Friday to mark the new year, Saleh appealed for reason from the insurgents.