The United Nations envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffith, who is currently visiting Yemen, met with the leader of the Huthis group, Abdulmalek al-Houthi, on Thursday, said a spokesman for the group, Mohamed Abdel Salam, while Washington renewed calls by all parties to the conflict in Yemen to cease fire.

Abdel Salam said the meeting discussed what could help in holding new consultations in December. He explained that during the meeting, they discussed the facilities required to transport the wounded and the sick for treatment abroad and return them.

He added that Houthi urged the United Nations to balance and neutrality in its performance and its search for a comprehensive political solution.

The UN envoy was supposed to visit the city of Hodeidah today but the visit was postponed until tomorrow.

A source in Griffith's office told AFP on Thursday that the international envoy in Sanaa since Wednesday would visit Hodeidah on Friday to create "an opportunity for calm in preparation for peace consultations."

Hodeidah, which accounts for 75 percent of humanitarian aid, is a major stake in the conflict that has killed thousands of civilians and left 14 million Yemenis on the brink of famine, according to the United Nations.

The UN envoy is working to prepare the ground for peace negotiations Washington announced on Wednesday evening that it will be held in early December in Sweden.

"At the beginning of December in Sweden we will see the Huthi rebels and the government recognized by the United Nations," Defense Secretary James Mattis said in a press statement.

About 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi intervention at the head of an Arab alliance (Reuters)

End the dispute
A US State Department spokeswoman reiterated the United States' call for all parties to the conflict in Yemen to support the efforts of the international envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, by immediately stopping the fighting and engaging in direct talks to end the conflict.

The Foreign Ministry welcomed the Special Envoy's statement that Houthi and the Yemeni government were committed to attending consultations in Sweden.

It urged all combatants to abide by the cessation of hostilities and not to use the truce to strengthen military positions.

The spokeswoman stressed the need to hand over the port of Hodeidah to a neutral party, to expedite the distribution of aid to face the acute humanitarian crisis.

Calls for peace talks to end the country's ongoing conflict in 2014 have intensified as fighting raged in the western city of Hodeidah in early November, before government forces halted a bid last week.

Around 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi intervention at the head of the military alliance in 2015. Rights groups accuse the parties to the conflict of committing "war crimes" in the poorest countries of the Arabian Peninsula.

In a study published on Wednesday, the Save the Children estimated that 85,000 children had died of starvation or disease since fighting intensified in 2015.