Britain has closed its embassy in Yemen due to security concerns and warned "terrorists" were in the final stages of planning attacks against Western targets in the Arab state.
"The British embassy will be closed on January 5 in response to specific security concerns," an embassy advisory said but did not elaborate.
"As at December 30, there is specific information that terrorists are in the final stages of planning attacks against British targets and other Western targets in Yemen," it said on Wednesday.
It advised British citizens to be particularly vigilant in places frequented by foreigners such as hotels.
British diplomats were not immediately available to comment.
A Yemeni government official played down the warning, saying it was a "routine procedure" by some embassies in order to stay on alert for any possible attacks.
"There are no serious threats. Yemeni security forces are ready to face any emergency and we were not informed of any specific threats," the official told Reuters.
In 2003 Yemen said it had foiled planned attacks on U.S. and British embassies in the capital Sanaa.
The impoverished country, the ancestral home of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, has cooperated closely with the U.S.-led "war on terror" and has arrested hundreds of al Qaeda suspects since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Last September, Yemen sentenced two al Qaeda militants to death for the 2000 bombing of the U.S. destroyer Cole. A month earlier, five al Qaeda supporters were jailed for the 2002 bombing of a French supertanker and another militant was sentenced to death for planning to kill the U.S. ambassador.
The British embassy had previously voiced concern that militant attacks in neighbouring Saudi Arabia could "inspire extremists" in nearby countries to carry out similar attacks.
Saudi Arabia has been battling a 19-month campaign of al Qaeda-linked violence in which about 170 people have been killed, including Westerners.