Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said that he will step down from power within the coming days.

"I reject power and I will continue to reject it, and I will be leaving power in the coming days," he said in a speech broadcast on state television.

He returned to Yemen unexpectedly last month from Saudi Arabia where he had been receiving treatment after his office was shelled in June.

He is faced with protests and an insurrection by renegade army units.