Talks on West Sahara conflict planned in Geneva in December

Fresh talks on the long-standing conflict over the Western Sahara are planned at the United Nations in Geneva in December, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York last week.

The talks are to be mediated by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' personal envoy for Western Sahara, Horst Koehler.

Western Sahara is a territory in North Africa largely controlled by Morocco but also claimed by the Polisario Front independence movement.

Representatives of Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Polisario Front are to attend the talks, Dujarric confirmed.

The dispute over Western Sahara began in 1975, when the region was invaded by neighbouring Morocco and Mauritania after the withdrawal of colonial power Spain. Mauritania later withdrew and recognised the Polisario Front's self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

The SADR also won recognition from a number of mostly African countries and gained backing from neighbouring Algeria. But the territory under its control gradually dwindled as Moroccan forces extended their sway over most of Western Sahara throughout the 1980s.

Polisario fighters, largely based in Algeria, where much of the territory's population took refuge, fought a guerrilla war until 1991, when they entered a peace process under UN auspices.

Efforts since then to reach a final peace settlement have been inconclusive, with the Polisario demanding a referendum on independence while Morocco has pushed for a form of regional autonomy under its sovereignty.    (dpa)