Sana'a, Yemen - Yemen said on Thursday it was "disappointed" at the appeal by US authorities against a court verdict overthrowing terrorism convictions handed down on two Yemeni clerics.

"Yemen is disappointed at the US authorities' appeal against the court ruling that acquitted Sheikh (Mohammed) al-Moayyad and his assistant (Mohammed) Zayed," Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Muhyaddin al-Dhabbi said in remarks published in the Defence Ministry weekly.

The appeal "doesn't comply with the nature of bilateral cooperation between the two countries and their joint efforts to fight terrorism," the Yemeni official said.

Al-Moayyad and Zayed are currently serving custodial sentences in the United States for alleged complicity with the al-Qaeda terrorist network and radical Palestinian Hamas movement.

The two men were arrested in Germany in 2003 and extradited to the United States.

A US court sentenced al-Moayyad in 2005 to 75 years in prison and Zayed to 45 years over alleged financial support to al- Qaeda and Hamas.

In October, a court of appeals overturned the convictions and ordered a retrial because of inflammatory testimony about unrelated terrorism cases in the first trial.

Yemen has repeatedly called for the release of the two men. (dpa)