The United States confirmed on Tuesday for the first time that a US ambassador has held talks with Yemen's Shiite Huthi militia in Oman.

Washington's top diplomat for the Near East, Anne Patterson, had a number of meetings in Oman with parties involved in the Yemen conflict "including with representatives of the Huthi," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

Patterson, who also travelled to Saudi Arabia for talks on the conflict, wants to persuade actors in the Yemeni conflict to take part in a proposed peace conference in Geneva, she said.