Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is being treated in Saudi Arabia for injuries he sustained in an attack in his palace earlier this month, will return to Sanaa in the next few days, an official of the ruling party reaffirmed on Friday.

"The president is currently recuperating in the military hospital in the Saudi capital of Riyadh and his health condition is stable and good," the official said.

A senior official of the ruling party said earlier this week that Saleh would come back on June 24, but then said the president underwent cosmetic surgeries for serious burns on his body and needed more days to return home.

Like each Friday, pro and anti-government protesters gathered in squares in Sanaa to call for achieving their political demands.

The anti-government protesters said they wanted a transitional presidential council in order to deal with the post-Saleh era.

"We believe that Saleh is unable to return or to rule the country again," said Adel al-Yazidy, a protest activist.

"An interim ruling council should be formed from all political forces, which would be the beginning of ending the prolonged standoff," he added.

Meanwhile, the pro-government demonstrators held a rally in a similar scale in the square near Saleh's palace, holding posters of the president and chanted slogans to condemn the June 3 attack, according to the state television.

Officials of the ruling party repeatedly said Saleh "would resume his constitutional duty as the president of Yemen upon his return from Riyadh."

Sporadic gunfire and fireworks can be heard in Sanaa recently in the evening, which the government officials said were a kind of celebration for the recovery of Saleh.

The 69-year-old president has been confronted with five-month- long protests demanding his immediate leave.

A Saudi diplomat in Sanaa told Xinhua that the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) support political changes in Yemen based on the GCC-brokered initiative as Yemen's deteriorating situation could negatively affect the governments of the GCC countries.

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