However, the United States plans to more than double its security assistance funding to Yemen, from $70 million to more than $150 million, Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour at CENTCOM headquarters in Tampa. Petraeus, who recently returned from his visit to the Arab nation, said Yemen's foreign minister was "quite clear that Yemen does not want to have American ground troops there. And that's a good response for us to hear, certainly," Petraeus said in an interview aired on Sunday on CNN. Asked on whether there were plans to send troops there, he replied, "No, of course, we would always want a host nation to deal with a problem itself. We want to help. We're providing assistance," Petraeus added. The general said the United States has been concerned about al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula for several years, saying, "Without question, it has ramped up over the course of the last year or more in particular, with training camps and so forth there." WASHINGTON | 
 
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States does not plan to send U.S. troops into Yemen or Somalia as those countries struggle to contain Islamic militants, President Barack Obama said in remarks published on Sunday. "It threatened the embassies of various countries that are important to Yemen and, in fact, assassinated some government officials," Petraeus said, referring to the al Qaeda branch in Yemen.
– The US has "no intention" of dispatching troops to Yemen or Somalia but will more than double the funding it allots for security aid in Yemen, according to the president and rthe head of Central Command. It's "quite clear that Yemen does not want to have American ground troops there," Gen. David Petraeus told Christiane Amanpour of CNN in an interview that aired today. "And that's a good—good response for us to hear, certainly." President Obama went further, describing Somalia as " another country where there are large chunks that are not fully under government control and al-Qaeda is trying to take advantage of them ." In an interview with People, which made a transcript available but has not reported the interview on its website, he said the US has " partnered with the Yemeni government to go after those terrorist training camps and cells there in a much more deliberate and sustained fashion. "