The offer by the US-backed Ali Abdullah Saleh came as protests demanding that he step down continued for the 11th straight day, with 3,000 university students demonstrating Sunday at Sanaa, the Yemeni capital.

“Dialogue is the best means, not sabotage or cutting off roads,” Saleh, in office for more than 30 years, told a news conference. “I am ready to sit on the negotiating table and meet their demands if they are legitimate,” said the Yemeni leader, who warned against “infiltrators” seeking to divide Yemenis and sabotage their country.

Some 3,000 students are protesting at Sanaa University in the Yemeni capital, calling for the country’s long serving US-backed president to step down.

Marching students chanted and carried signs reading “Get out Ali for the sake of future generations.” Riot police watched the march but have not yet intervened.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s parliamentary opposition said on Sunday that it will join street protests and will not resume dialogue with the regime, which it accused of resorting to the use of force against demonstrators. The Common Forum, an alliance of parliamentary opposition groups, has urged all of its parties to “join the protesting youths ... in their demonstrations against oppression, tyranny and corruption,” in a statement.

Saleh’s rule continues to show signs of resilience in the face of the sustained protests, that have seen security forces and regime supporters battling demonstrators, mostly university students. The protests pose the most serious challenge to Saleh’s rule to date. He has already made a series of concessions, pledging that his son would not succeed him and that he would not seek another term in office.