"The GCC ambassadors have had several rounds of talks with different factions during the last few days, including a meeting today in Sanaa," a GCC source said Saturday on condition of anonymity. "The visit of Al-Zayani to Sanaa, the first after the GCC consultative council summit last week, is part of an effort to revive the power-transfer deal."

Al-Zayani's trip is aimed at helping Yemeni factions narrow their differences, the source added.

This renewed attempt to revive the GCC deal comes amid violence that has rocked Yemen in recent days. Six soldiers were killed Saturday by Al-Qaeda militants who have become emboldened by the tumult and are seeking to exploit divisions.

Al-Zayani reiterated his call to the parties to return to the initiative, "to resolve the crisis and to avoid a further deterioration in the situation in Yemen."

Contrary to the hopes expressed by Gulf leaders that a solution was still at hand, Saleh sounded noncommittal again on Saturday saying the Gulf-brokered pact "needs an executive mechanism of time and sequence so as to ensure its success."

Making populist appeals, Saleh has said he would go out on the streets after stepping down from power to contact the people directly and that he would get enough support to take on the government that would replace him.

The president also called some clauses of the GCC deal "obscure and ambiguous" that would require "better clarifications through direct talks with the Yemeni factions."

At the same time, Yemen's parliamentary opposition declared the Gulf-led transition plan "dead" and vowed to step up a campaign for the immediate ouster of President Saleh.

The GCC initiative suffered a setback after Qatar withdrew its support over Yemeni accusations it was aggressively campaigning for Saleh's ouster.

The attempt to revive the deal coincides with the extraordinary ministerial meeting of Arab League Council to be held in Cairo on Sunday. The Cairo meeting will name a new Arab League secretary-general either by consensus or election. The two candidates in the field are former Qatari GCC chief Abdulrahman Al-Attiyah and Egypt's Mustafa El-Fiki. The Kingdom's delegation to the Cairo meeting will be led by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Nizar Obaid Madani.