United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Russia warned Thursday the war in Yemen could grind on for a "very long time" because of the government's insistence on conditions for a ceasefire.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, speaking to reporters after a UN Security Council meeting on the Yemen crisis, told reporters he was concerned that prospects for peace talks were dim.

"We hear that the government does not want to have a ceasefire until there is a comprehensive settlement," Churkin said.

"This is a recipe for a very long conflict which will have even more dramatic results," he said.

Russia has repeatedly criticized the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen that was launched last March to push back Iranian-backed Huthi rebels.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in the conflict. It has brought the country to its knees, with more than 80 percent of the population in dire need of food, medicine or other basic necessities.

Russia abstained, but did not veto, a Saudi-backed resolution adopted last year that demands that the Huthi rebels withdraw from all territory seized in their campaign.

That resolution, Churkin said, "is being used essentially to continue the military campaign" by the Saudi-led coalition.

UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed last month told the council that he was hoping to convene peace talks this month to follow up on a first round of consultations held in Switzerland in January.

But the envoy did not announce a date for new talks during his closed-door briefing to the council, diplomats said.

Yemen's Ambassador Khaled Alyemany said his government was ready to take part in talks but accused the rebels of failing to fulfill their commitment to release detainees among other confidence-building measures.

Alyemany accused the Huthis of blocking aid convoys and looting relief supplies that he said were being sold on the black market.

"The putschist militias are acting like war criminals. They are using starvation as a tool of war against my people in every province under their control," he told the council.

Angolan Ambassador Ismael Gaspar Martins, whose country holds the council presidency this month, told reporters that "a speedy cessation of hostilities is a must" in Yemen.

Deploring the "extremely grave" humanitarian crisis, Gaspar Martins said the council was considering a new resolution to press for more aid to reach Yemen and to stress the importance of protecting hospitals from attacks.

The UN envoy is due to return to Saudi Arabia on Friday for more talks on the ceasefire and other confidence-building measures, diplomats said.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Turkey is under growing pressure to consider a major escalation in migrant deportations from Greece, a top European Union official said Thursday, amid preparations for a highly anticipated summit of EU and Turkish leaders next week.

European Council President Donald Tusk ended a six-nation tour of migration crisis countries in Turkey, where 850,000 migrants and refugees left last year for Greek islands.

"We agree that the refugee flows still remain far too high," Tusk said after meeting Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

"To many in Europe, the most promising method seems to be a fast and large-scale mechanism to ship back irregular migrants arriving in Greece. It would effectively break the business model of the smugglers."

Tusk was careful to single out illegal economic migrants for possible deportation, not asylum-seekers. And he wasn't clear who would actually carry out the expulsions: Greece itself, EU border agency Frontex or even other organizations like NATO.

Greek officials said Thursday that nearly 32,000 migrants were stranded in the country following a decision by Austria and four ex-Yugolsav countries to drastically reduce the number of transiting migrants.

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Migrants queue for food outside the registration and hospitality centre, known as hotspot, of the ea …

"We consider the (Macedonian) border to be closed ... Letting 80 through a day is not significant," Migration Minister Ioannis Mouzals said.

He said the army had built 10,000 additional places at temporary shelters since the border closures, with work underway on a further 15,000.

But a top U.N. official on migration warned that number of people stranded in Greece could quickly double.

Peter Sutherland said the "inevitable consequence" of closed borders throughout the Balkans "is that Greece increasingly becomes a camp for refugees and migrants."

About a third of migrants trapped in Greece are at the village of Idomeni, on the border with Macedonia. Dwellers at a sprawling camp there hold out hope for crossing in increasingly difficult conditions.

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Volunteers serve food to migrants queuing outside the registration and hospitality centre, known as …

Greek police said 130 people were allowed to cross the border Thursday.

Migrants said Macedonia didn't accept computer-generated stamps issued by the Greek police, and therefore they couldn't prove their identity documents were genuine.

Adnan Abdallah from Syria had waited to cross from Greece to Macedonia for three days, but when he finally was let through, he was turned back because the stamp on his refugee document is computer-generated.

"They say here (in Greece) everything is OK, but on the other side this is not acceptable," he told The Associated Press.

The EU is struggling to hold its members to plans for a Europe-wide solution in dealing with the mass migration.

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A migrant child poses for the photographer at the registration and hospitality centre, known as hots …

Hungary has already called a referendum on EU plans for a mandatory quota system for settling migrants, and says it's was considering action to bolster its border fences with additional police and military personnel, and extending the fence to the Romanian frontier.

Earlier Thursday, Tusk told officials in Athens that Europe had little chance of resolving the crisis without full respect of controls on the external borders of Europe's passport-free Schengen area — signaling pressure on Athens to do more to separate economic migrants from those fleeing war in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.

He also had a direct message for them.

"I want to appeal to all potential illegal economic migrants, wherever you are from: Do not come to Europe," Tusk said.

"Do not risk your lives and your money. It is all for nothing. Greece, or any other European country, will no longer be a transit country."

___

Elena Becatoros in Idomeni, Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Raf Casert in Brussels, Jamie Keaten in Geneva, Switzerland, and Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary contributed.

A state health worker shows off a test tube with mosquito larvae during a fumigation as part of preventive measures against the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases in Merida, Mexico, February 4, 2016. REUTERS/Lorenzo Hernandez

By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House will gather U.S. state and local officials next month to urgently craft a plan to attack the notoriously hard-to-control mosquito that spreads the Zika virus ahead of its peak season.

By June or July, federal health officials expect the continental United States will see its first locally transmitted cases of the Zika virus, which has been linked to thousands of suspected cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect, in Brazil.

The White House is inviting officials involved in mosquito control and public health to an April 1 summit at the Atlanta headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to talk about how best to track and control the spread of the virus, and respond when people are affected.

"The best-case scenario here is that we could either limit local transmission, or get ahead of it and contain it as soon as possible," said Amy Pope, the deputy assistant for homeland security for President Barack Obama, in an interview.

While most people bitten by an infected insect experience only mild illness, pregnant women need to take extra precautions, the CDC has said. Scientists are also studying a potential link between Zika and Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological disorder that can cause paralysis.

More than a dozen suspected cases of sexual transmission, and one case of suspected transmission through a blood transfusion have raised questions about other ways that Zika may spread.

The CDC had originally expected localized outbreaks of zika in some southern states through local transmission, and said widespread use of air conditioning, window screens and regular garbage collection would mitigate the risk.

"We've had surprises," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC's principal deputy director, noting the suspected cases of sexual transmission may prompt the agency to reassess its projections.

"We're in a posture of knowing that time is precious and collaboration is essential," Schuchat said in the interview.

'TIME IS PRECIOUS'

The outbreak has already affected large parts of Latin America and the Caribbean. The World Health Organization estimates Zika could eventually affect as many as 4 million people in the Americas.

There have already been more than 100 cases in Puerto Rico, with thousands more expected this year, Schuchat said.

"We are extremely concerned about Puerto Rico," she said.

CDC Director Thomas Frieden on Monday will make his first trip to the island territory since the outbreak to spend a few days talking with government officials and CDC workers about the spread, she said.

Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus actually causes microcephaly in babies, a condition defined by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems. Brazil said it has confirmed more than 640 cases of microcephaly, and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating more than 4,200 additional suspected cases of microcephaly.

The species of mosquito that carries Zika likely will begin to emerge in the continental United States in April or May.

"It's hardy. It lives in dark corners. It's resilient," Pope said, noting communities across the country have different approaches to controlling the insect.

"While individual communities may have their own plans, there's no coordinated planning at this point, and we think that needs to happen," she said.

Obama has asked the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress for more than $1.8 billion in emergency funding to fight the virus, but several top lawmakers have balked, saying he should first draw from other health funding.

"If we don't get funding until after we see transmission in the United States, until after we see children born with birth defects, then we're well behind the curve," Pope said.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Andrew Hay)