Sana’a - Houthi rebels and Yemeni presidential guards reached a ceasefire Monday after a day of clashes around the presidential palace that saw the prime minister's convoy come under gunfire.
Fighting broke out at dawn after presidential guards apparently opened fire on a Houthi patrol, with security forces and the Shiite rebel movement trading blame for the initial outbreak.
A security official, who asked not to be named, told dpa that the guards had been forced to open fire after the Houthi patrol approached the perimeter of the presidential palace, in the south of the capital.
Houthi official Ali al-Quhum said the Houthi militias, who have largely controlled the capital since September, were acting in self-defence.
Local residents reported gunshots and artillery fire through the morning and early afternoon, with presidential guards deploying tanks around the palace.
President Abd Rabi Mansour Hadi - who has the backing of the UN Security Council and Gulf states - was not thought to be in the palace during the clashes.
Convoys bringing Prime Minister Khaled Bahah and Houthi former presidential advisor Salih al-Samad back from emergency ceasefire talks were both shot at, Information Minister Nadia Skaff wrote on Twitter.
Neither man was reported to have been injured.
A health official told dpa that one fatality had been brought to a government hospital in the capital, while state news agency Saba quoted Health Minister Yassin Abdullah as saying that 55 people were being treated for injuries.
Al-Samad and the interior and defence ministers met in the afternoon and agreed a ceasefire that went into effect at 4:30 pm (1330 GMT).
Al-Quhum said the deal also included addressing Houthi concerns about a new draft constitution.
The rebels say the draft is incompatible with a UN-brokered agreement they signed with Hadi after overrunning most of the capital in September.
They are opposed to a planned six-region federal system which would split areas of northern Yemen, where they are influential, between three federal regions.
The clashes come two days after Houthis abducted Hadi's chief of staff in the capital as he was on his way to present the president with a copy of the draft constitution.
The abduction of Ahmed Bin Mubarak, who is secretary general of the commission drafting the constitution, has led to an angry reaction in his native southern Yemen, where local officials and tribal leaders have threatened to block oil and gas exports.
The Houthis, who seek to revive the Zaydi Shiite traditions of Yemen's historically dominant northern highlands, have expanded across much of northern and central Yemen during the past year.
Their criticism of corruption and of wealthy power brokers in Sana'a has won them support outside the Zaydi heartland in the far north, but they have also been accused of collaborating with ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The UN in November imposed sanctions on Saleh and two Houthi commanders, accusing them of seeking to block the internationally-backed transition process in Yemen.
The country, one of the poorest in the Arab world, also faces an insurgency by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has increasingly attacked the Houthis in recent months.
AQAP, the Yemeni branch of the international jihadist network, last week claimed responsibility for the January 7 attack in Paris on the office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Sapa-dpa