Battles raged near a Yemeni port crucial for humanitarian aid yesterday, but Saudi Arabia and its allies said they were committed to de-escalating hostilities with rebels as calls for a ceasefire mount.

The United Nations has appealed for urgent peace talks and warned that an assault on the Red Sea port city of Hodeida would threaten millions of lives.

Yemeni government forces, backed by a regional military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, say they are now positioned around both the north and south of Hodeida, where clashes have left dozens dead.

The city and its port have been controlled by the Huthis -- Iran-backed Shia insurgents who hail from northern Yemen -- since 2014 along with the capital Sanaa.

Rebels and government sources both reported intense fighting in the area yesterday, despite calls by the UN and the United States -- which provides military support to the Saudi-led camp -- for an end to the war.

A source in the Saudi-led coalition told AFP the clashes were not "offensive operations", adding that the alliance was "committed to keeping the Hodeida port open".

But three officials with the Yemeni military said fighting continued to flare around Hodeida, whose port is the entry point for three quarters of the country's imports.

The head of the Huthis' revolutionary council, Mohammed Ali al-Huthi, yesterday reported a "military escalation by the coalition," slamming the operation as "a strenuous attempt to block talks aimed at ending the war and finding peace".

Yemeni military officials said the coalition had sent fighter jets and Apache attack helicopters yesterday morning to back up troops on the ground around Hodeida.