N African summit still on track

2005-05-24 09:24

Tripoli - The three-decade-old dispute between Algeria and Morocco over the western Sahara raised its head again ahead of a key regional summit here this week, as King Mohammed VI of Morocco decided not to take part.

The king had decided to skip the event as in backing the Saharan independence movement Polisario, "Algeria has taken on the responsibility for compromising the opportunity to relaunch, at the highest level, North African construction," the ministry in Rabat said in a statement.

The king "will not be able to personally take part in the Tripoli summit, as he had initially decided," the statement said, saying that the foreign minister would replace him.

The summit of the five-nation Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) - grouping Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia takes place on Thursday in Tripoli and is to be its first meeting at that level since 1994.

Founded in 1989, the five-member grouping has since been largely paralysed by the dispute between the two regional giants.

The summit was originally to have also take place on Wednesday, but Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Shalgham said it was being delayed due to the death of the brother of Tunisia's President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

The Sahara dispute had raised its head again Monday at a North African foreign ministers' meeting in Tripoli to prepare the summit, but officials voiced confidence the summit would still go ahead.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika fired the first round on Saturday sending a message to the Saharan independence movement Polisario promising to champion their cause at this week's summit.

Morocco, which occupied the formerly Spanish territory in 1975, hit back on Monday with Foreign Minister Mohammed Ben Issa condemning comments which he said did "not help in relaunching the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA)", the five-member regional grouping which Wednesday's summit is intended to revive.

Algerian presidential envoy Abdelaziz Belkhadem sounded a soothing note at the preparatory ministers' meeting, insisting that the Sahara dispute was off the agenda.

"The problem's in the hands of the United Nations ... and we're here to discuss issues to do with the UMA," he said.

"Differences over the Sahara will be kept far from the summit," he added, voicing confidence that Mohammed VI would join the meeting alongside Bouteflika.

The Libyan foreign minister said the hosts were "keen to reactivate the grouping ... and the agreements which established it after 16 years of problems".

"The summit will address a whole array of political and economic issues," he said.

- AFP