Yemeni presidential guards clashed with hundreds of soldiers protesting in front of the president's palace in Sanaa on Friday, leaving one dead and six wounded, a military official and witnesses said.

A gunfight broke out as angry soldiers, who had gathered at nearby Sabiin Square to demand compensation, tried to march on the palace, the witnesses told AFP.

"One soldier was killed and six others were wounded," a military source told AFP, adding that he was unsure which side the casualties were on.

Reinforcements from the military police and anti-riot troops were deployed around the palace, the source said.

The demonstrating soldiers, who witnesses said numbered between 600 and 800, were from Yemen's reserve forces but had been part of the once-powerful Republican Guard.

The elite unit led by the eldest son of former president Ali Abdallah Saleh, Ahmed, was dismantled last year as part of efforts to restructure the army.

The streets leading to the presidential palace had been closed to traffic, residents said, adding that calm returned after the clashes.

The violence came a day after President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi met US President Barack Obama at the White House.

Obama praised Hadi's efforts to manage his country's political transition and his cooperation against Al-Qaeda-linked militants based in Yemen.

Hadi assumed power in February 2012 after an 11-month-long Arab Spring-inspired revolt toppled longtime autocrat Saleh, a close US ally who ruled Yemen for 33 years.