Saleh calls for dialogue over elections

Sana'a: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh called for new rounds of dialogue with main opposition parties who still refuse to participate in elections without guarantees for free and fair parliamentary elections in April 2009.

"We call them to constructive dialogue, not dialogue of the deaf," Saleh said Wednesday in a meeting under the banner "toward free, fair and transparent elections" held by his ruling party the People's General Congress.

The call comes after a series of failed dialogue rounds between PGC and the opposition alliance of Islamists, Socialists, and Nasserites, locally known as the Joint Meeting Parties (JMPs) over administration of elections.

The two sides have been unable to reach an agreement on conducting elections since the presidential elections of 2006 which Saleh won.