SANAA (Reuters) ? Yemen's ruling party held open the possibility that President Ali Abdullah Saleh would sign a deal on Sunday that would soon ease him out of office as Washington heaped pressure on the entrenched leader to transfer power.
The move was an unexpected reversal just a day after last-minute snags appeared to derail the deal, which would require Saleh to resign within a month but grant him immunity from prosecution to ensure a dignified exit.
"Maybe it will be signed on Sunday," a ruling party official said of the deal, which has already fallen through twice.
An Yemeni opposition official said a Gulf mediator confirmed that Saleh would on Sunday sign the deal forged by Yemen's oil-exporting neighbors. who hope it will end months of protests that have paralyzed Yemen's already faltering economy.
The United States and Saudi Arabia, both targets of foiled attacks by al Qaeda's Yemen wing, are keen to end the Yemeni stalemate to avert deeper chaos that could give one of the militant network's most potent arms more room to thrive.
Washington has increased pressure on Saleh to sign and implement the deal, and President Barack Obama said in a speech on U.S. policy in the Arab world on Thursday that Saleh needed to "follow through on his commitment to transfer power."
Pressure was also mounting on Yemen from its wealthy Gulf Arab neighbors, who said their foreign ministers would meet on Sunday to discuss the crisis but made no mention in their statement of a signing ceremony.
"The ministers will discuss in their meeting the results of the latest visit of the Cooperation Council's secretary-general to Sanaa over the Gulf initiative to resolve the crisis in Yemen," the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council said.
MINOR CHANGES TO DEAL
Protesters, frustrated their daily rallies have failed to dislodge Saleh who has ruled for nearly 33 years, want him out immediately in the Arabian Peninsula state, which is also facing revolts from northern Shi'ite rebels and southern separatists.
They have threatened to step up their campaign by marching on government buildings, a move that brought new bloodshed last week as security forces fired to stop them. Strikes have brought commerce to a halt in many cities.
"We are in favor of the president's departure from power by any route. So long as the agreement encompasses this, we are for it," said Ali Noman, a street activist in the city of Ibb, south of the capital.
Saleh, who has outlasted previous attempts to challenge his power, indicated in April he would sign the Gulf-brokered deal, but refused to put his name to it in the final hours.
He said at the time he would only sign in his capacity as ruling party leader, not as president.
On Wednesday, the sides agreed again in principle to the deal, with minor changes on who would sign and in what capacity. Saleh, 69, was due to sign in a dual capacity as party leader and president, according to the opposition.
But the deal broke down over who would sign it from the opposition side. Saleh pushed for its leftist rotating head, Yassin Noman, to be the main opposition signatory.
The opposition preferred Mohammed Basindwa, an opposition figure tipped as a possible interim prime minister, sources close to the talks said.
The opposition, which includes both Islamists and leftists, eventually agreed to have Noman as the first opposition signer while keeping Basindwa on the list of additional signatories. Saleh refused and the deal fell through, the sources said.
The ruling party later said Saleh was willing to sign but wanted to deal only with "legally recognized parties" represented in parliament, seen as a dig at Basindwa, a political independent.
(Writing by Cynthia Johnston; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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