Updated

A key panel tasked with coming up with a system of federalism for Yemen has agreed to transform the impoverished, strife-torn Arabian Peninsula nation into a state of six regions.

The decision comes at the end of two weeks of talks by delegates from across the country on a new political map to end decades of centralization that fed internal conflicts in north and south. It will be included in the new constitution, to be put to a referendum.

Many politicians from southern Yemen, once an independent state, demanded that there be only two regions.

The panel led by President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi announced its decision Monday. Two regions will be in the south and four in the north. Sanaa, the capital, will not be affiliated to a region.