The United Nations said Friday that the Yemeni peace talks in Kuwait were expected to resume within hours despite a government threat to boycott the negotiations.

The talks will resume later Friday "or tomorrow" (Saturday), a spokesman for UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmad told AFP.

The envoy travelled to Riyadh on Friday to meet Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in an effort to convince the government to take part.

Ould Cheikh Ahmed was to return to Kuwait City "along with the government delegation", the spokesman said.

The rebel delegation of Shiite Huthis and representatives of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh's General People's Congress party have already arrived, a Huthi spokesman said.

"We have arrived in Kuwait to continue the negotiations in accordance with the pledge agreed with the United Nations," Mohammed Abdulsalam said on Twitter.

On its way to Kuwait, the rebel delegation made a day-long stopover in Oman during which they said they met Foreign Minister Yussef bin Alawi.

Unlike its Gulf neighbours, Oman maintains good ties with Shiite Iran, a key backer of the Huthi rebels in Yemen.

Sources close to the Yemeni government told AFP that Ould Cheikh Ahmed was briefing Hadi and the government delegation on the outcome of his talks with the rebels.

Hadi has formed a committee of advisers and delegates to "prepare a document containing the government's view on resuming its participation" in the negotiations, a government official told AFP.

More than two months of negotiations between Hadi's Saudi-backed government and the rebels have failed to make any headway.

The government is calling for implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2216 which requires the rebels and their allies to withdraw from areas they have occupied since 2014, including the capital Sanaa, and hand over heavy weapons.

Hadi on Sunday warned that his government would boycott the talks if the UN envoy insisted on a roadmap stipulating a unity government that included the insurgents.

His government wants to re-establish its authority across the entire country, much of which is rebel-controlled, and to restart a political transition interrupted when the Huthis seized Sanaa.

More than 6,400 people have been killed in Yemen since a Saudi-led coalition intervened in support of Hadi's government in March last year.

Another 2.8 million people have been displaced and more than 80 percent of the population urgently needs humanitarian aid, according to UN figures.