Former South Yemen leader says unity failed - report

* Former southern leader says unity has failed

* Violence has flared in south Yemen in recent weeks

DUBAI, March 3 (Reuters) - Unification of northern and southern Yemen has failed, an exiled former president of South Yemen was quoted as saying on Wednesday, accusing the government of using violence which he said was provoking southern secessionists.

Violence in southern Yemen has escalated in recent weeks as separatists protesting against the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh clashed with security forces in violence that left three police and five protesters dead.

North and South Yemen formally unified as the Republic of Yemen in 1990 but many in the south, where most of Yemen's oil facilities are located, say that northerners have used unification to seize resources and discriminate against them.

"What is required is for the ties to be undone because the unity that we strove for has failed completely," former president Ali Salem al-Beidh told U.S.-funded Radio Sawa, according to the station's website.

Asked if the southern secessionists could become an armed movement, Beidh said:

"If this regime continues to act against us using all means of violence, then I think the peaceful movement may have another option ... Things cannot go on as they are."

Beidh has been in exile in Germany since a civil war in 1994 which saw the north under Saleh take control of the whole country. The two men had shared power after the former north and south Yemeni states united in 1990.

Earlier this week, Yemeni security forces fought with suspected rebels in the southern Abyan province.

Yemen rose to the forefront of Western security concerns after the Yemeni arm of al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound plane in December.

Western governments and Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, fear al Qaeda is exploiting instability in Yemen to recruit and train militants to launch attacks in the region and beyond.

In addition to the southern tensions, Sanaa is also trying to bring an end to an on-and-off civil war with northern Shi'ite rebels that in November drew in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

Tension flared in south Yemen after a protester was killed on Feb. 13 by police. This ignited unrest in which separatists burned northern-owned shops and tried to block a key road.

Authorities have launched security sweeps that resulted in around 180 arrests across southern provinces. (Reporting by Raissa Kasolowsky)