Envoys from the two warring Yemens on Thursday signed a Russian-brokered cease-fire agreement in the two-month civil war, news agencies reported.


Interfax said the open-ended cease-fire would take effect at midnight local time. It said the warring parties had agreed to a follow-up round of talks in New York on monitoring the cease-fire.


Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev negotiated the deal Wednesday and Thursday with North Yemeni Foreign Minister Muhammad Salim Ali Basindwah and South Yemeni envoy Salim Saleh Muhammad, deputy secretary general of the Yemeni Socialist Party's Central Committee.


As the agreement was being signed in Moscow, there were reports from Yemen that another, earlier cease-fire had broken down. The truce fell apart under repeated northern attacks.


It was the seventh cease-fire to fail since the conflict erupted May 4.


After the signing Kozyrev read out a message from President Boris Yeltsin describing the new agreement as "an important first step to end the fratricidal conflict."


Yeltsin said further efforts were required by both sides to strengthen the cease-fire and work out a mechanism to ensure that it held.


Kozyrev's meetings with the Yemeni envoys were indicative of Russia's attempt to recoup lost influence in the Middle East, where the Soviet Union was a major player.


South Yemen was one of Moscow's many client states and had a Soviet-trained army.


Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, which called Wednesday for an immediate cease-fire. Both Yeltsin and Kozyrev said the Yemeni question should be solved in line with Security Council resolutions.


(AP, Reuters)