WASHINGTON - The US wants to see an immediate transition in Yemen after the country's President Ali Abdullah Saleh was wounded Friday by shelling on his presidential palace, US State Department said on Monday.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters that Saleh is in Saudi Arabia and is receiving medical treatment.

"There is a civilian government that remains in place in Yemen, and we believe that the time is now to begin that peaceful transition toward a democratic process that meets the aspirations of the Yemeni people," he said.

Toner also said the US ambassador to Yemen had met with the country's Vice-President and the current acting President Abd- Rabbu Mansour Hadi and will continue to meet with the Yemeni government.

Saleh, who is facing five-month-long street protests across the country demanding his ouster, left for the Saudi capital Riyadh late on Saturday, a day after a rocket attack injured him inside a mosque in the presidential palace.

Saleh's ruling party blamed the attack on the tribal gunmen led by powerful opposition leader Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar who has agreed on a Saudi-mediated truce deal with government troops to end a two- week battles in downtown Sanaa.

Hadi told state-run Saba news agency on Monday that Saleh is in good condition and will return home within days.