Yemen talks end without ceasefire

More than 2,800 people have been killed since an Arab alliance began air raids on March 26 to try to roll back the Iranian-backed Houthis' advances across much of Yemen and reinstate exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said that in five days of "proximity talks" - in which he shuttled between factions who refused to sit at the same table - the two sides agreed in principle on the need for a ceasefire and withdrawal of forces in keeping with UN Security Council Resolution 2216.

He said he would fly to New York on June 21 to brief the UN Security Council, where major powers also needed to sign off on his proposal for a force of civilian observers to monitor any truce and withdrawals on the ground.

Hadi's foreign minister, Reyad Yassin Abdullah, said the talks made no significant headway but there was room for more discussions, although no date had been scheduled for any.

Hadi's government has demanded that the Houthis, who are allied with Yemeni military units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, pull out of cities captured since last September as a precondition for a ceasefire.

Hamza Al-Houthi, head of the Houthi delegation to the talks, put the blame on Saudi Arabia, which is leading the Arab coalition carrying out air strikes in Yemen in support of Hadi.

"We do not say that the Geneva conference failed, but rather that it was a first step, and there were acts of obstruction that were clear and systematic aimed at ensuring that no clear results come out of this conference," Al-Houthi told a news conference on Friday night.

In Washington, US State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the Geneva talks were a useful start. "We have to expect that it could be a lengthy process," he said.

The United Nations on June 19 also launched a revised humanitarian appeal of US$1.6 billion for the large number of Yemenis trapped or displaced by the conflict.