SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh rejected an opposition plan for him to transfer power this year, as demonstrations against his three-decade rule over the impoverished nation swelled into hundreds of thousands. Saleh is sticking to his earlier offer to step down only when his term ends in 2013. However, he agreed to a reform plan proposed by religious leaders earlier this week which would revamp elections, parliament and the judicial system. "The president rejected the proposal and is holding on to his previous offer," the opposition's rotating president Mohammed al-Mutawakil said Friday. There was no direct word from the government. Shia rebels in northern Yemen said the military fired rockets at their anti-government protests on Friday and killed two, as protests spread and intensify across the impoverished Arab Nation. Meanwhile, hundreds of Omanis demanding jobs and political reforms demonstrated across the Gulf Arab sultanate on Friday, staging protests from the southern port of Salalah to the northern industrial town of Sohar. Around 200 protesters gathered in capital Muscat at the headquarters of the Shura Council, a quasi-parliamentary advisory body, where some had camped out overnight in tents. Similar numbers demonstrated in Salalah, the eastern coastal town of Sur where Oman's liquefied natural gas export facilities are based, and Sohar where medical sources said six people were killed in clashes with security forces earlier this week. Tunisia's new Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi on Friday accused toppled president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of "high treason" during his first public appearance. "I have no doubt that the former president made himself guilty of high treason for having renounced upholding his responsibility of ensuring security and stability" and for "having left" the country when he was "commander in chief of the armed forces," Caid Essebsi told a news briefing. The interim prime minister said on Friday he would appoint a new government in two days, the third caretaker administration since the overthrow of veteran leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January. Meanwhile, several hundred people protested on Friday in the Shia-majority east of Saudi Arabia, calling for the release of an arrested cleric and other detainees, witnesses said. An appeal was made on Facebook for a "Day of Rage" on Friday in the kingdom's east to demand the release of Sheikh Tawfiq al-Aamer, a Shia cleric arrested on Sunday. Hundreds of people protested after Friday prayers in the town of Al-Houfouf for the release of Aamer and others, witnesses said. A similar protest was held in Al-Qatif but was dispersed by police, witnesses said. Meanwhile, Egypt's new Prime Minister Essam Sharaf vowed on Friday to respond to demands for democratic change as he addressed thousands of protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square a day after his appointment. "I am here because I draw my legitimacy from you ... I will exert all my effort to respond to your demands," Sharaf told flag-waving supporters in the square, the centre of protests that toppled president Hosni Mubarak last month. Meanwhile, hundreds of Jordanians marched through the Jordanian capital on Friday, demanding democratic reforms and an end to official corruption in a protest inspired by uprisings around the Arab world. The crowd, joined by liberal and leftist activists, marched after Friday prayers to a square in the centre of Amman, shouting: "We want to reform the regime," and "we want to fight the thieves who have robbed the country." Meanwhile, fighting between Sunni and majority Shia Muslims in central Bahrain injured several people overnight in the first sectarian violence since protests erupted in the Sunni-ruled kingdom two weeks ago. But calm quickly returned on Friday after several hours of clashes, triggered late on Thursday by a family dispute or a car accident, or both, according to differing residents' accounts." Meanwhile, Iraqi security forces used water cannon and batons to disperse protesters in the southern oil hub of Basra on Friday as thousands of Iraqis rallied around the nation against corrupt officials and poor basic services. Demonstrations against a shortage of jobs, electricity, water and other basic services have been rising as Iraqis, inspired by protests around the Arab world, demand reforms from a formed in December after elections last year. In central Basra around 700 protesters near the provincial council building were forcibly removed by Iraqi soldiers and police after they refused to stop demonstrating.