Ahmed al-Sufi, a spokesman for the Yemeni president, told AP on Tuesday that Saleh informed senior Yemeni officials, military commanders and tribal leaders of his intention in meetings on Monday night.
The report comes as a reversal of Saleh's earlier comments in which he had said he would remain in power until the end of his term in 2013.
Yemeni opposition and religious figures have envisioned a roadmap for the president's departure before the end of this year.
President Saleh has been in office for more than three decades with several opposition members, arguing that his long-promised reforms have not materialized.
Protests began to sweep Yemen in January. Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds more have been injured in a brutal crackdown by security forces.
Some 40 percent of Yemen's population lives on under US $2 a day or less, and a third is wrestling with chronic hunger.
There are also concerns that intermittent skirmishes between anti-government demonstrators and forces loyal to embattled Ali Abdullah Saleh could eventually spiral out of control and spill into large-scale violence.
source : http://abna.ir
