The UN Security Council is set to vote today on a resolution to impose an arms embargo on Yemen's Houthi rebels and also seeks to blacklist the son of former president and a Houthi leader.

Council member Jordan and Gulf Arab states finalised their draft text on Thursday. Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the resolution may be put to a vote in the 15-member Security Council today.

It was unclear how Russia would vote. Diplomats said Russia had suggested during negotiations that an arms embargo should also include the Yemen government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The draft UN resolution would impose a global asset freeze and travel ban on Ahmed Saleh, the former head of Yemen's elite Republican Guard, and Abdulmalik Al Houthi, a top leader of the Shi'ite Houthi group.

Saleh's father, former Yemen president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and two other senior Houthi leaders, Abd Al Khaliq Al Houthi and Abdullah Yahya Al Hakim, were blacklisted by the Security Council in November. Yemeni soldiers loyal to the former president are fighting alongside the Houthis.

The UN yesterday called for an immediate "humanitarian pause" of at least a few hours each day in Yemen to allow desperately needed aid to enter the conflict-ravaged country.

The UN's humanitarian co-ordinator in Yemen Johannes Van Der Klaauw, speaking to reporters in Geneva, called for an "immediate humanitarian pause in this conflict."

A suicide car bomb detonated outside a security building used by Houthi militiamen in central Yemen yesterday, killing at least 20 people, residents and a local official said.

The local branch of Al Qaeda claimed the attack in the city of Bayhan in Shabwa province, which has witnessed heavy fighting between the Houthi fighters and local militiamen who have been supported by days of Saudi-led air strikes.-Reuters