Summary:
Yemen's opposition has asked the president to sign a deal with the government, a spokesman for the country's ruling party says.

Full article:
(CNN) -- A deal designed to end months of anti-government protests in Yemen suffered a setback Sunday when embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh rejected the opposition signature, officials said Sunday. Saleh, who was due to sign the deal Sunday, refused to recognize the opposition signature on it from the day before. "President Saleh invited the JMP (opposition alliance) to sign the ... proposal at the presidential palace at 3 p.m. today. We hope the JMP accepts President Saleh's invitation," said Tareq Shami, a spokesman for Yemen's ruling party, the General People's Congress (GPC). He insisted that the demand is not a complication, but rather common sense. "Any agreement should never take place in closed-door meetings. This is commonly known and Saleh does not want to start the transition period in such a way," Shami said. Opposition officials rejected Saleh's proposal. "This is Saleh. His words are never trusted. No agreement is respected by him," said Mohammed Qahtan, a spokesman for the JMP. Yemen, a key al Qaeda battleground and U.S. ally, has been roiled by protests for most of the year amid the background of anti-government demonstrations across much of the Arab world.