Oil-exporter United Arab Emirates will buy 500,000 tonnes of wheat and donate it to Yemen, the official Wam news agency reported on Monday.

The agency report did not say where the wheat would be bought from, but said the move, ordered by president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan, was meant to help the Yemeni people face rising wheat prices. It did not give further details.

Yemen, one of the poorest countries outside Africa, has faced unrest in the south of the country over unemployment and rising prices, and renewed fighting between Shi'ite Muslim rebels and government forces in the north.

The International Committee of the Red Cross appealed earlier this month for an extra $8 million to provide food, water and medical assistance to people caught up in the fighting in Yemen.

Yemen imports about 75 per cent of its food, according to the World Food Programme. The UAE, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, agreed last week to give its energy-dependent north African ally Morocco $300 million to soften the blow to the kingdom's finances from soaring oil prices.-Reuters