The Gulf Cooperation Council has accused Shi'ite Houthi rebels of staging a coup in Yemen after they announced they were dissolving parliament and forming a new government, Kuwait's official news agency said on Saturday.

The opposition of the GCC, a six-nation bloc comprising energy-rich Gulf states, may signal growing isolation for the impoverished Yemen and reflects Sunni Muslim hostility towards the Iranian-backed Houthi militant group.

"This Houthi coup is a dangerous escalation which we reject and is unacceptable. It totally contradicts the spirit of pluralism and coexistence which Yemen has known," the GCC was quoted as saying by KUNA news agency.

The GCC called the takeover a "threat...to the security and stability of the region and the interests of its people."

Yemen's Houthi movement dissolved parliament on Friday and said it would set up a new interim government. The Houthi leader, in a televised speech said that hand was extended to all political factions for partnership, cooperation and brotherhood and now everybody bears their responsibility for building, not destruction," he said in a televised speech.

But he warned: "Any move which targets this people, its economy, security or stability is unacceptable, and the great Yemeni people will confront any such conspiracies."

Yemen's instability has drawn international concern as it shares a long border with top world oil exporter Saudi Arabia.

Tensions ran high in the capital on Saturday, with armed Houthis out in force near main government buildings.

PHOTO CAPTION

Houthi militiamen and soldiers stand behind a roadblock at the scene of a blast near the republican palace in Sanaa February 7, 2015.

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