The UN's Security Council has failed to reach agreement on the violence engulfing Yemen after
formally debating the Yemen crisis for the first time.
Yet it could not agree on a joint statement despite worrying accounts of events in the strife-torn nation, diplomats said.
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A press statement was drawn up by Germany and Lebanon, two of the members on the 15-nation council, but was blocked by a minority of nations, diplomats said. The BBC reported unnamed diplomats as saying Russia objected.
"We heard reports of concern in Yemen," said US ambassador Susan Rice after the meeting, which marked a widening of the Security Council's agenda in the popular uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa.
"We expressed concern at the situation in Yemen which is deteriorating, we ask for restraint and dialogue," declared German envoy Peter Wittig, whose country called for the discussion on protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Ambassadors were briefed by Gamal bin Omer, the UN envoy to Yemen who held talks with Saleh last week and UN political specialists before the failed attempt to agree on a statement.
More than 125 people have been killed in protests against Saleh, with another three people shot dead by police on Tuesday.
Wittig said earlier that even the fact that the council was discussing Yemen "sends an important signal by the international community: the negotiations should not stall and further bloodshed has to be avoided."
He praised efforts by the Gulf Cooperation Council to mediate in the dispute. GCC foreign ministers met a Yemen government delegation in Abu Dhabi to follow up on its appeals to Saleh to announce a transfer of powers.
"It is high time that all parties, especially President Saleh, take up this initiative and strive for a peaceful transition," the German envoy said.
Three people were shot dead in Yemen on Tuesday -- one a passer-by -- as security forces opened fire to disperse protesters calling for the ouster of embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The latest killings came as a Yemeni government delegation was in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi for talks with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers.
Arab Gulf foreign ministers discussed with a Yemeni government delegation in Abu Dhabi Thursday an initiative to end a months-long standoff between protesters and authorities, a statement said.
"During the meeting both sides exchanged opinions over the Gulf initiative to reach an agreement that fulfills the aspirations of the Yemeni people," they said in a joint statement.
