Algeria rejected Libyan request for two weeks postponement of UMA summit, minister
Algeria-Libya, Politics, 12/23/2003

Algiers has rejected a Libyan request to postpone the summit of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) until January 6, because it was not sure the new deadline would guarantee the success of the summit, Algerian foreign minister, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, said in Algiers Monday.

The foreign ministers council of the North African regional grouping (mustering Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia) had announced earlier that the seventh summit of UMA, initially scheduled for December 23-24, was postponed upon Libya's request.

Libya has requested the adjournment of the Maghreban summit for interior reasons, the Algerian minister told a press conference.

Although the summit has been cancelled, Libya was assigned the rotating chairmanship of UMA after Algeria insisted on handing it over.

Belkhadem said Algeria insisted on renouncing UMA chairmanship in respect of the spirit of the Maghreban project that stipulates an annual rotating chairmanship. He explained that UMA member countries did not need to hold a heads of state summit to organize the transfer.

The UMA summit could not be held for a decade now mainly because of differences between the most populated countries, Morocco and Algeria, over the Sahara known as the Western Sahara. This former Spanish colony was retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid Accords, but the separatist movement "Polisario," backed by Algeria, has ever since been claiming independence of the territory.

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