By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

  SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has ordered his security forces to protect demonstrators trying to end his 32-year rule, but a leading opposition figure said the move was " too little, too late."

  A statement relayed by Yemen's press attache in Washington on Thursday said Saleh had " demanded security services to offer full protection for the demonstrators."

  " Saleh instructed all security services to thwart all clashes and prevent direct confrontation between pro- and anti-government protesters...

  " Furthermore, the government calls on protesters to remain vigilant and take all precautionary steps to prevent the infiltrations of individuals seeking to carry out violent actions.

  " The government ... will continue to protect the rights of its citizens to assemble peacefully and their right to freedom of expression," the statement said.

  Lawmaker Abdulmoez al-Dabwan told Reuters Saleh " is trying to distract from the violence wreaked by thugs whom the government backs."

  " His statement is too little, too late. It is the duty of the security forces to protect peaceful demonstrators in any case," said Dabwan, who is from the Islamist party Islah.

  Hours after Saleh's statement was issued, a bomb exploded at a protest march by southern secessionists in the town of Lawdar, killing one person and wounding two, a local official said.

  A man who had set himself on fire earlier this week died of his injuries at a hospital in Aden on Thursday, a doctor told Reuters. The man's relatives said he had acted in protest against the killings of protesters in the southern port city.

  PROTESTER NUMBERS DOUBLE

  In front of Sanaa University in the capital, protestors demanding the removal of the president kept up a daily rally, their numbers doubling to 4,000. Saleh's supporters staged a large demonstration in the Abs region, 350-km (220 miles) north of Sanaa, witnesses said.

  Thursday's deaths brought to 17 the number of fatalities in a wave of nationwide protests in the past week against Saleh's rule, prompted by the fall of Tunisia's and Egypt's presidents. Saleh has said he will not give in to what he described as opponents advocating anarchy.

  Pro-Saleh loyalists wielding clubs and daggers have often sought to break up opposition protests in Sanaa and elsewhere.

  Saleh, a U.S. ally against a Yemen-based al Qaeda wing that has launched attacks at home and abroad, is struggling to end month-old protests flaring across his impoverished country.

  Yemen, which is also trying to maintain a shaky truce with northern Shi'ite Muslim rebels, is a major route for migrants from the Horn of Africa trying to reach the Gulf and the West.

  Fifty-seven Somalis drowned when their boat capsized in rough seas off the coast of Yemen on Sunday, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday.

  Nine members of parliament have quit Saleh's ruling party in protest at what they described as government violence against demonstrators, parliamentarians said on Wednesday.

  About 80 percent of lawmakers still back the president. " The people must have the right to demonstrate peacefully," Abdulaziz Jubari, one of the MPs to resign, told Reuters.

  (Additional reporting by Alistair Lyon in Dubai and Mohammed Mukhashaf in Aden editing by Philippa Fletcher)

By James Vicini and Jeremy Pelofsky

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 20-year-old Saudi student has been arrested in Texas in a bomb plot that may have targeted former President George W. Bush and nuclear plants, U.S. authorities said Thursday.

  Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, who was admitted into the United States in 2008 on a student visa and was attending college in Lubbock, Texas, was arrested Wednesday by FBI agents, the U.S. Justice Department said.

  He was accused of terrorism charges involving the purchase of chemicals and equipment to make a bomb, with potential targets that included nuclear power plants. One of his e-mails included the Dallas address of Bush. Another cited three former U.S. military members who had been stationed at the Abu Ghraib prison, where Iraqis faced abuses by their American jailers.

  Department officials said there was no evidence the suspect was part of a militant group and he apparently had been acting alone. U.S. officials have been concerned about individuals acting alone to commit attacks in the United States.

  U.S. officials said Aldawsari described his desire for violent jihad and martyrdom in blog postings and in a personal journal that listed tasks to do such as obtaining fake U.S. documents and renting several cars to hide bombs in them.

  Aldawsari also sent himself an e-mail titled " Tyrant's House," in which he listed the Dallas address for Bush, who moved there after leaving office in 2009. Apart from publishing his memoirs, the former president has largely stayed out of the limelight.

  The FBI received a report on February 1 from a chemical supplier about an attempt by Aldawsari to buy concentrated phenol, which has legitimate uses but can also can be used to make the explosive trinitrophenol, known as picric acid.

  The shipment was sent to a freight company but the firm returned it to the supplier and called the police, the Justice Department said. Aldawsari told the supplier he was connected to a university and was doing " off-campus, personal research."

  SUSPECTS FACES UP TO LIFE IN PRISON

  If convicted, Aldawsari faces up to life in prison. He is due to make an initial appearance in court Friday in Texas.

  U.S. officials said Aldawsari has been researching online how to build a bomb using several chemicals as ingredients, and acquired most of the ingredients and the necessary equipment, an FBI agent said in a court affidavit.

  In December and January, he purchased concentrated nitric and sulfuric acids, a gas mask, a Hazmat suit, a soldering iron kit, glass beakers and flasks, wiring, a stun gun, clocks and a battery tester, according to the affidavit.

  It said Aldawsari also e-mailed himself instructions on how to convert a cellular phone into a remote detonator and how to prepare a booby-trapped vehicle using items available in every home.

  One of his e-mails contained a message stating that " one operation in the land of the infidels is equal to ten operations against occupying forces in the land of the Muslims," according to the affidavit.

  FBI agents in a legally authorized search of Aldawsari's apartment this month found a notebook that appeared to be a diary or journal, it said.

  According to the affidavit, excerpts from the journal indicated that he had been planning to commit a terrorist attack in the United States for years.

  It quoted one of his entries as saying, " And now, after mastering the English language, learning how to build explosives and continuous planning to target the infidel Americans, it is time for Jihad."

  (Editing by Doina Chiacu)

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's military has been dropping leaflets into North Korea about democracy protests in Egypt and also sent food, medicines and radios for residents as part of a psychological campaign, a legislator said on Friday.

  The campaign was aimed at encouraging North Koreans to think about change, conservative South Korean parliament member Song Young-sun said.

  The food and medicines were delivered in light-weight baskets tied to balloons with timers programmed to release the items above the target areas in the impoverished North, Song said in a statement.

  South Korea's defence ministry declined to confirm the move, citing its policy of not commenting on sensitive issues in its dealings with the North.

  The food items bore a message that they were sent by the South Korean military and were safe for human consumption but could be fed to livestock to test safety, Song said.

  The leaflets also carried news of public protests in Libya against the country's long-time leader, Song's office said.

  Analysts say the level of Pyongyang's control over communications and movement of people is too tight to make it likely for North Koreans to rise up to the similar type of protests against their leaders.

  South Korea's military has resumed its campaign of speaking directly to North Korean residents after the North bombarded an island near a disputed sea border in November, killing four people including civilians.

  Tensions on the Korean peninsula rose to the highest level in years after the artillery attack and the sinking of a South Korean navy vessel in March last year, but the two sides have since renewed a dialogue aimed at easing relations.

  Their first attempt at talks broke down earlier in February dealing a setback to plans to resume international disarmament talks with the North.

  (Reporting by Jack Kim Editing by Chris Lewis and Yoko Nishikawa)

By Alexander Dziadosz and Tom Pfeiffer

  BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - The United States sought to drum up international backing for ways to stem the bloodshed in Libya as forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi waged fierce gun battles with opposition rebels holding cities near the capital.

  President Barack Obama consulted the French, British and Italian leaders late on Thursday on immediate steps against Gaddafi over his bloody crackdown on a popular uprising in which up to 2,000 people may have died, according to French estimates.

  As oil prices leapt towards $120, stoking fears the fragile global economic recovery could be threatened, Washington, which once branded Gaddafi a " mad dog," said it was keeping all options open, including sanctions and military action.

  However, coordinated international action against Gaddafi, who has ruled the oil-rich desert nation of six million for 41 years, still seemed some way off, as foreign governments focussed on evacuating thousands of their citizens trapped by the unrest.

  With the Middle East still absorbing the aftershocks from the overthrow of veteran, Western-backed leaders in Tunisia and Egypt by people power, Western governments are also concerned not to be seen to be imposing neo-colonial solutions on Libya.

  Disparate opposition forces were already in control of major centres in the east, including the second city Benghazi. Reports of the third city Misrata, as well as Zuara, in the west also falling brought the tide of rebellion closer to Gaddafi's power base -- though information from western Libya remained patchy.

  Little opposition organisation exists in Libya after four decades of oppression, so the nature of the new ruling orders in eastern cities is still unclear. There was little sign of radical Islamists among the lawyers, doctors, tribal elders and army officers who made up committees trying to bring order.

  GADDAFI DEFIANT

  But Gaddafi, appealing for calm on Thursday in a telephone call to state television, blamed the revolt on al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. He also said the protesters were fuelled by milk and Nescafe spiked with hallucinogenic drugs.

  His opponents, including some in the capital Tripoli where many kept off the streets for fear of violence, said the latest public appearance by the 68-year-old showed he was out of touch.

  " Their ages are 17. They give them pills at night, they put hallucinatory pills in their drinks, their milk, their coffee, their Nescafe," Gaddafi said of the rebels fighting his forces.

  His apparently conciliatory tone contrasted sharply with his raging defiance two days before when he vowed on television to crush the revolt and die a " martyr" in Libya, unlike the leaders in Egypt and Tunis ousted in past weeks by mass uprisings.

  Amid reports of Gaddafi and his sons deploying African mercenaries and their own clansmen, all with little to lose if the old order is to collapse, a former minister who bolted Gaddafi's cabinet this week said he believed Colonel Gaddafi would " do what Hitler did" and take his own life if cornered.

  ASSET SEIZURE

  As growing numbers of Libyan officials, including cabinet ministers and ambassadors, reportedly deserted Gaddafi, the Swiss government said it was freezing assets of his family.

  Libya's foreign ministry denied that the leader had any such funds and said it would sue Switzerland for saying so. The Daily Telegraph said in an unsourced report that Britain may seize some $30 billion (18.6 billion pounds) held in Britain.

  Diplomatic differences emerged even in a push by Western states to suspend Libya from the low-powered U.N. Human Rights Council, which met with strong resistance from Arab and some other Islamic states, as well as from Russia and Cuba.

  Obama is sending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Geneva on Monday to push the U.N. body to condemn Libya.

  Gaddafi's grip on power could depend in part on the performance around Tripoli of an elite military unit led by one of his younger sons, U.S. and European officials and secret diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks showed.

  Libya's 32nd Brigade, led by Gaddafi's son Khamees, is the most elite of three last-ditch " regime protection units" totalling about 10,000 men in all, which are better equipped and more loyal to Gaddafi than the rest of the military, which has seen heavy desertion, officials said.

  A witness told Reuters the unit had attacked anti-government militias controlling the town of Misrata, 200 km (120 miles) east of Tripoli, killing several people, although residents said the government forces were beaten back by lightly armed local people.

  OIL PRESSURE

  After decades of shunning Gaddafi, accusing him of supporting anti-Western militant groups around the world, the Western powers had in recent years embraced the flamboyant leader with a penchant for flowing robes and female bodyguards.

  Gaddafi was particularly reviled after the 1988 Pan Am airliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. A defecting minister said this week that he had evidence Gaddafi did order the attack, in which 270 people were killed.

  His ending of some weapons programmes and cutting of overt ties with international militants, especially following the U.S. overthrow of Iraq's Saddam Huseein in 2003, led to cooperation with Western companies on developing oilfields.

  U.S. officials said specific steps against Libya could include seeking stronger U.N. Security Council action, enforcing a no-fly zone to prevent further government attacks, suspending Libya's export licences and sending humanitarian relief.

  Oil prices have surged to 2-1/2 year highs on fears the unrest could spread to other oil-producing countries and choke supplies. That may jeopardise a global economic recovery.

  Bank of America Merrill Lynch said crude production in Libya, which supplies nearly 2 percent of world oil output, was expected to shut down completely and could be lost for a prolonged period of time. Saudi Arabia is prepared to try to fill the gap in supplies, Saudi sources said.

  (Reporting by Tarek Amara in Tunis, Christian Lowe in Algiers, Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Souhail Karam in Rabat, Firouz Sedarat and Martina Fuchs in Dubai, Tom Pfeiffer, Mohammed Abbas and Alexander Dziadosz in Benghazi Brian Love and John Irish in Paris Daren Butler in Istanbul Dina Zayed, Sarah Mikhail and Tom Perry in Cairo Michael Georgy on Tunisia/Libya border Katie Reid in Zurich writing by Elizabeth Fullerton Editing by Alastair Macdonald)