GCC foreign ministers on Saturday urged the United Nations Security Council to authorise coercive measures to try to resolve the crisis in Yemen, the Saudi-owned news channel Al Arabiya reported.

An emergency meeting of members of the Gulf Cooperation Council urged the Council to pass a "Chapter 7" resolution, which authorises the use of military force or economic sanctions to enforce Council resolutions, the channel said.

A Shi'ite Muslim militia formally took power in impoverished and strife-torn Yemen this month, in a move that its energy-rich Sunni Muslim Gulf neighbours have denounced as a coup. – Reuters