Hundreds of thousands of anti-regime protesters demonstrated on Friday across Yemeni cities demanding the quick installation of an interim ruling council to replace wounded President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

By contrast, a counter-demonstration by regime loyalists in Sanaa was poorly attended for the first time since they began late January, witnesses said.

A Saudi official claimed on Friday that Saleh, who is hospitalised in Riyadh after being wounded in an explosion at his Sanaa compound early June, will not return to Yemen.

The statement was promptly denied by Yemen's deputy information minister Abdo al-Janadi who said that Saleh "will return in the coming few days."

Anti-Saleh demonstrators in Sanaa urged Saudi King Abdullah not to allow Saleh to return to Yemen.

"Oh King Abdullah, keep Ali Abdullah (Saleh)," they chanted at University Square, now dubbed Change Square, host to nearly five months of protests.

Demonstrations were also staged in Taez, Yemen's second-largest city, Aden, Ebb, Hudayda, Mukalla and other cities, witnesses said.

In Taez, protesters held Friday prayers and a following demonstration at Freedom Square for the first time since the place was stormed by security forces on May 29 in an attack that the UN said left more than 50 dead.

Protesters are pressing Saleh's deputy, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi to form a transitional ruling council to prevent the return of Saleh, who has not been seen in public since the bomb attack on his compound on June 3.