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President Ali Abdullah Saleh left Yemen Sunday for neighbouring Oman from where he will go to the United States for treatment, hours after making a farewell speech asking the people to forgive him.

Saleh headed for Oman "where he will spend a few days before going to the United States," Abdulhafiz al-Nahari, spokesman for Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party, told reporters.

The trip "is for medical treatment and is not official," Nahari said.

In a televised farewell speech delivered just hours before he left, Saleh said he will head to the United States for medical treatment and asked Yemenis for forgiveness.

"I will go to the United States for treatment and will then return as head of the GPC party," Saleh said.

"I ask for forgiveness from all my people, men and women, for any shortcomings during my 33-year-long rule," he added.

Diplomats in Sanaa said that Saleh's eldest son Ahmed -- who commands the feared Republican Guard -- was "already in Oman" to prepare for his father's arrival.

A senior GPC official, Sultan al-Barakani, said last week that Saleh, who remains in office on an honorary basis, would travel abroad.

"In the coming days, he will visit the sultanate of Oman and then Ethiopia before travelling to New York for treatment" for wounds he sustained in a bombing at the presidential palace last June, Barakani told AFP.

"Once he has completed his treatment in New York, he will return to Yemen to continue leading the party."

The White House and the US State Department declined to comment on Sunday.

US officials have said the only reason Saleh will be admitted to the United States is for "legitimate" medical treatment for wounds sustained in the June attack.

But such a trip could open Washington to charges of harbouring a brutal ruler responsible for the deaths of hundreds of demonstrators.

Analysts have said Saleh would face stringent conditions in return for admission to a New York hospital, possibly including a ban on media interviews to deprive him of a political platform.

His departure came a day after parliament adopted a law giving Saleh "complete" immunity from prosecution in return for stepping down under a transition deal brokered by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.

The law, which also grants limited immunity to his aides, has drawn wide condemnation from young protesters, who have seen hundreds of their compatriots killed by Saleh's security forces and loyalists since the uprising against his rule broke out in January 2011.

It has also been strongly criticised by Western rights groups and the United Nations.

Saleh in his farewell speech defended the law, saying that those who have benefited from it are "all those who have worked with the president during a 33-year-long rule."

"If there had been mistakes, then they were unintentional as the president has immunity from his own people to whom he had dedicated his life to serve for this nation," Saleh said, calling for "reconciliation" in Yemen.

"The poor youths (who have continued) sit-ins for 11 months, go back to your homes and families and open up a new page with the new leadership. I feel sorry for you," Saleh said.

Parliament on Saturday also adopted a law approving Saleh's long-time deputy, Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, who appeared sitting next to the president during the speech, as the consensus candidate in the election to succeed him, due to be held on February 21.

Hadi will then be "handed over the presidential palace while Ali Abdullah Saleh will take his bag, bid farewell, and leave to his own home," the Saba news agency quoted the veteran president as saying.

"I announce from here, out of respect and appreciation for Hadi's stances and efforts, his promotion to the rank of marshal," Saleh said.

"I call onto all the people of the nation to to cooperate with him (Hadi) and with the unity government to correct and rebuild what has been destroyed during the past" year, the 69-year-old said.

"I thank our people men and women for their honest stances and for all they have tolerated during 11 months of hunger, power cuts, and a lack of services as well as many other things. I salute these steadfast and heroic people," he added.

Saleh's defiant months-long clinging to power triggered political deadlock that threw Yemen into chaos and left the economy of the already poor country in a shambles.

AFP