The protest movement demanding his immediate departure earlier said it has also agreed to the mediators' proposal but with reservations. It objects to an article that gives Parliament the right to reject the president's resignation. The Parliament is dominated by members of Saleh's General People's Congress party.

State TV said Abu Baker Al-Qirbi, Yemen's foreign minister in the caretaker government, delivered the government's acceptance to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Saturday.

Hours before the television announcement, the ruling party said it had accepted the GCC initiative without any reservations.

Earlier Saturday, Mohammed Al-Sabri, a senior opposition figure, had criticized the GCC. "Unfortunately the GCC countries don't fully understand the situation in Yemen and they think it is a mere crisis between the opposition and the state," he told Arab News by telephone. "There is a nationwide revolution and it must be respected. Million of peaceful civilians go to the streets every day."

Before the television announcement, Saleh Saturday accused the opposition of fomenting the uprising and trying to cash in on the turmoil and grab power.

He also said the opposition is trying to drag the country into a civil war. "We are determined not to get drawn into a civil war which is not in the interest of Yemen and the region. The repercussions of any instability will have broader aftereffects in the region," the president warned. Saleh claimed that the protesters are overstating their number by leaving spaces between the prayer rows.

In his speech at the Military Academy, Saleh branded the people who call him to resign thugs. "Most of the (defecting) ministers, military personnel ... are landgrabbers, smugglers of oil and gas, corrupt and fraudsters."

On Saturday, schools, government offices and private companies shut their doors in response to the opposition's call for a general strike aimed at putting more pressure on Saleh to step down.

Thousands of protesters kept up sit-ins at city squares in at least five provinces, two months into the country's uprising against the entrenched regime.

In the southern port city of Aden, army gunfire wounded two protesters. Soldiers opened fire on a group of youths who had been trying to erect a barrier in a bid to halt road traffic during the strike, medics said.