By Agencies

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World powers are preparing to meet in London for talks on tackling the rising threat of al-Qaeda in Yemen in the wake of a failed attempt to attack a US airliner last month.

Representatives from 21 countries are to gather in the British capital on Wednesday to discuss ways to help Yemen address its security problems and bolster a faltering economy.

The meeting will focus on "how to assist the Yemen government to improve security, root out al-Qaeda and promote economic and promote economic and social development", Britain's Foreign Office said.

Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, called the one-day meeting after a Yemen-based al-Qaeda affiliate claimed responsibility for a plot to blow up a US-bound passenger jet on December 25.

Delegates will also press Yemen to push ahead with economic reforms and tackling corruption.

Yemeni concerns

But some Yemeni officials have expressed concern at the prospect of foreign interference.

"What we want above all is a commitment on the development (and) the building of our capacities against radicalisation," the AFP news agency cited Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, Yemen's foreign minister, as saying on the eve of the meeting.

Yemen is battling an independence movement in the south of the country and Houthi fighters in the north, as well as the domestic al-Qaeda affiliate, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

'Clandestine US operation'

In what could further inflame anti-Western sentiments in the region, the Washington Post has reported that Barack Obama, the US president, has approved secret joint military and intelligence operations with Yemeni troops.

The report, published in the US newspaper's Wednesday editions, said the operations began six weeks ago and resulted in the deaths of six regional al-Qaeda leaders.

It said Obama approved a December 24 attack against a compound where Anwar al-Awlaki, a controversial Muslim leader who holds US citizenship, was believed to be meeting al-Qaeda leaders.

The operations involved several dozen troops from the US military's clandestine Joint Special Operations Command.

The US advisers do not take part in raids in Yemen, but help plan missions, develop tactics and provide weapons and intelligence, Washington Post reported citing military officials.