UN trying to avert assault on Yemen port

The United Nations is engaged in "intense" shuttle diplomacy between the Iran-aligned Houthi group in Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in a bid to avert an attack on Yemen's Hodeidah port city.

A Saudi-led coalition military attack or siege on the Houthi-held western city, long a target in the war, could cost up to 250,000 lives in a worst-case scenario, the United Nations has warned.

The Red Sea port is a lifeline for millions of people, handling most of the country's commercial imports and humanitarian aid supplies.

The UN Security Council met behind closed doors on Monday at the request of Britain to be briefed on the situation after heavy fighting erupted near Hodeidah on Friday and Saturday.

"We are, at the present moment, in intense consultation," , UN chief Antonio Guterres said.

"I hope that it will be possible to avoid a battle for Hodeidah."

Correspondence sent from European donor governments to aid groups in Yemen on Saturday warned that "a military assault now looks imminent," according to the text of the correspondence seen by Reuters.

Saudi-led coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said past and present UN efforts had been met with "intransigence" by the Houthis who he said have refused a political solution to end the crisis.

The UN has been working on a peace plan that calls on the Houthi group to give up its ballistic missiles in return for an end to a Saudi-led coalition bombing campaign and a transitional governance agreement.

Previous UN efforts have failed to end the more than three-year-old conflict which pits the Houthis, who seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, against other Yemeni forces backed by a coalition loyal to exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and led by US allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The United Nations relocated members of its international staff from Hodeidah on Monday.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday called on all parties "to honour their commitments to work with the UN"

Pompeo's statement, while cautionary, did not explicitly urge the Emiratis to avoid an assault on Hodeidah.