SANAA, April 9 (Reuters) - Yemen said on Monday 25 soldiers and some 20 Shi'ite rebels had been killed over the past five days in sporadic clashes, raising the toll to about 315 rebels and 157 soldiers since January.

About 40 soldiers and 30 rebels were wounded in fighting between government troops and followers of Shi'ite Muslim rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi in remote northern mountains over the past week, a government official told Reuters.

The government of the Sunni-dominated Arab state accuses the rebels of seeking to oust its secular administration and install Islamist rule. The rebels say they are defending their villages against what they call government aggression.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered the army in January to crack down on Houthi and his group, whom the government says preaches violence against the United States.

It was not immediately possible to get comment from Houthi's followers. They say the government's figures for rebel losses are inflated but give no numbers of their own.

The official, who wished not to be named, said the state had set up camps to shelter about 10,000 people who fled their homes after the fighting broke out in the northern Saada province.

"Thousands of people from the region where the confrontations are taking place have left," the official said.

Saleh has rejected talks with the rebels. The government has urged them to turn in their weapons, pledging they would not be detained.

Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Houthi's supporters are not linked to al Qaeda.

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