RIYADH, Feb 11: Saudi Arabia and Yemen are holding emergency talks on what Riyadh calls a "security screen" and what some in Yemen believe to be a concrete wall coming up along the long border.

However, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has expressed a hope that the issue would be resolved amicably. The Saudi authorities describe the barrier along a 42-km portion of the border with Yemen as a security screen, or cement-filled pipeline.

"The cement-filled pipeline being built inside our territories is aimed at curbing infiltration and smuggling," Lt Gen Talal Aanaawi, chief of the Saudi border patrol, said recently.

Yemeni authorities say the barrier is being built in a common grazing area agreed upon in a June 2000 deal that ended a decades-long dispute.