Speaking at a journalists' union congress, Saleh said that he had tasked the information ministry with "swiftly drawing up a bill authorising the setting up of satellite radio and television channels by individuals or non-state organisations."

Yemen has a flourishing independent press but, in an impoverished country where illiteracy runs high, control of the broadcast media is paramount.

The president said he was also using his presidential powers to pardon journalist Abdel Karim al-Khiwani, who was sentenced to three years in prison in June last year for allegedly supporting rebels intent on restoring the theocracy overthrown by republican forces in 1962.

The journalist had been already been released from jail last September amid US criticism of the court judgement.