Yemen Shi'ite rebels free scores of prisoners

The move came a day after a top Yemeni security body said the rebels were not fully complying with a deal struck in February to end a conflict that has raged on and off since 2004 and drew in neighbouring oil exporter Saudi Arabia last year.

While a step forward, the release highlighted differences that remain between the sides, with a military official saying more government prisoners were still being held and the rebels demanding the state free imprisoned insurgents.

"The truce committee received 170 detainees, some military and others tribesmen who fought alongside the forces during the latest clashes," the military official told Reuters. "There are still many detainees being held by the rebels."

Sanaa, struggling to stabilise a fractious country, came under heavy international pressure to end the northern war to focus on fighting al Qaeda, whose Yemen-based arm claimed a failed December attack on a U.S.-bound plane.

Western governments and neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, fear al Qaeda is exploiting instability on many fronts in Yemen to recruit and train militants for attacks in the region and beyond.

Analysts say the truce deal between the government and rebels, who belong to the minority Zaydi sect of Shi'ite Islam, was unlikely to last as it does not address the insurgents' complaints of discrimination by Sanaa.

The prisoners were handed over in the northern province of Saada, the scene of most of the fighting, and would be moved to Sanaa on Thursday, Al Arabiya television reported.

"We closed the prisoner file by freeing 180 captive soldiers, and we hope the authorities will live up to their obligations and free prisoners jailed since the first (phase of the) war," said rebel spokesman Mohamed Abdel-Salam, whose account of the number freed was higher than Sanaa's estimate.

Al Arabiya had reported civilians were among those freed. But the military official said all prisoners were combatants, either directly for the military or fighting alongside it.