Yemen's foreign minister on Saturday said the rebel-held port of Hodeida must be handed over to the government, amid UN-brokered talks on the conflict between the government and Houthi insurgents.

"We accept that the port works under the administration that ran the port in 2014," Khaled al-Yamani told AFP.

The rebels seized Hodeida, Yemen's most valuable port, located on the Red Sea, in a takeover of territory in 2014.