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Theresa May will urge the Arab and EU states to "redouble our efforts" to reach a peace deal in Yemen, as the UK pledged a further 拢200m in humanitarian aid for the war-torn country.

The prime minister, speaking on her way to the EU-league of Arab states summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, said the "situation in Yemen cannot go on."

"There must be a political settlement - this is the only way to end this crisis and the suffering it's caused," she said.

The prime minister called on the international community to turn December's peace talks in Stockholm into a "lasting peace" and said the suffering must end.

The civil war between Saudi-backed forces and Houthi rebels has been raging for nearly four years and has brought humanitarian crisis to the Yemeni people, with millions on the brink of starvation.

Mrs May wants all sides to press on with peace talks which resumed late last year for the first time since 2016, with the two warring sides agreeing to a ceasefire in the port city of Hodeidah and pledging to withdraw troops.

She said: "Pressure must be brought to bear on all those involved on the conflict.

"Forces from all sides need to start moving out of Hodeidah and follow through on plans for the exchange of prisoners. The ceasefire must be respected with parties exercising restraint."

The prime minister, under growing pressure to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia, said she would use the summit to press King Salman on Yemen, but signalled Britain's arms policy was not changing towards the kingdom.

"I will underline the UK's ongoing commitment to the security of Saudi Arabia in the region," she added.

Her remarks come after a damning parliamentary report concluded this month that British arms sales to Saudi Arabia are "causing significant civilian casualties" in Yemen and were probably illegal.

The cross-party House of Lords international relations select committee concluded Britain was "on the wrong side of the law" by sanctioning arms exports to Riyadh.

The UK has insisted this is not the case, because of the Saudi-led coalition's processes for investigating possible errors.

But the peers disagreed, with David Howell, the committee's Conservative chair, criticising ministers for failing to carry out independent checks and instead relying on inadequate Saudi checks.

"We do not agree with the government's assertion that its is narrowly on the right side of international humanitarian law in the case of licensing arms exports to the Saudi-led coalitions," said Lord Howell.

"It's narrowly on the wrong side: given the volume and types of arms being exported to the Saudi-led coalition, we believe they are likely to the the cause of significant civilian casualties in Yemen, risking the violation of international humanitarian law."

Mrs May on Sunday said the UK will give a further £200m in aid to the country ahead of a humanitarian pledging conference for Yemen in Geneva next Tuesday.