LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Various reports list Saleh as having burns over 40 percent of his body, with bleeding in his brain. He remains in Saudi Arabia for treatment, along with a number of top officials who were also wounded in the blast.

The president's allies insist that he could return within days. Saleh has ruled Yemen for nearly 33 years and has held out against a wave of daily protests since late January demanding his removal. Before he was wounded, opposition tribesmen rose up and battled for two weeks with government forces in fighting that shook the capital city of Sanaa.

In Sanaa's Taghyeer, or "Change," Square, the crowds of protesters demanded that the vice president, the acting leader in Saleh's absence allow the creation of a new government. "The people want a transitional government," demonstrators chanted.

The opposition tribesmen marched through the square with the bodies of 41 of their fighters killed after troops bombarded the Sanaa home of one of their leaders. The tribe's chief, Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, led a march of around 10,000 people from the square to a cemetery in the capital, as protesters chanted, "The people want the butcher put on trial," referring to Saleh.

Several thousand Saleh supporters three miles away held a rally outside his presidential palace. There were no reports of clashes between the two sides.

Similar anti-Saleh protests were held in cities around the country, including Taiz, Yemen's second largest city, where tribesmen have moved in to protect protesters who came under attack last week in a fierce crackdown by government troops.

Since Saleh's evacuation, Sanaa has been under a fragile cease-fire, with government troops still deployed in the streets where they once battled tribal fighters. The situation has raised fears of a new explosion of violence if a political solution is not found soon . or if the president does indeed return.

The United States and Saudi Arabia are pressing Saleh's ruling party to move ahead with a Gulf Arab-mediated agreement under which he would formally leave power.