DUBAI - Senior figures from Yemen's dominant Houthi group are holding talks with U.S. officials in Oman to advance efforts to resolve the conflict in Yemen, the Riyadh-based Yemeni government said on Sunday.

A Saudi-led coalition began air strikes in Yemen in March in a campaign to restore Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power. Hadi fled in March, after the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa in September and then thrust into central and south Yemen.

Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in the conflict since March 19, according to the United Nations.

"We have been informed that there are meetings, at American request, and that a private American plane carried the Houthis to Muscat," Rajeh Badi, a spokesman for Yemen's government in exile told Reuters by telephone from the Saudi capital Riyadh.

The Yemeni government was not party to the talks, Badi said.

There was no immediate comment from the Houthis and from U.S. officials.

If confirmed, the Oman meeting would be the first between the Houthis and the United States, Saudi Arabia's main foreign ally, since the start of the war.

The United States has said it was providing arms and intelligence to Saudi Arabia during its campaign in Yemen. (Reuters)