Qatar, trying to bolster its image as a regional Gulf Arab peacemaker, brokered a north Yemen peace accord in 2008 before the region slipped back into a civil war that last year drew in top oil exporter and regional power Saudi Arabia.

Yemen reached a new truce with rebels in February to halt sporadic fighting that has displaced 350,000 people since 2005, and officials said this week's Doha talks would focus on efforts to enhance peace in the north rebel stronghold of Saada.

"We will discuss details of the mechanisms to implement the (current) agreement," a Yemeni official said, adding that the delegates would look for ways to carry out terms of the truce.

Impoverished Yemen, also facing growing southern separatism, is under pressure to resolve domestic conflicts to focus on quashing a resurgent al Qaeda arm that wants to use the Arabian Peninsula state to launch attacks in the region and beyond.

Al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing claimed responsibility for a failed bomb attack on a U.S.-bound plane in December and has also carried out attacks on Saudi, British and Yemeni government targets over the past year.