King Mohammed underscores importance Morocco grants EU ties

"King Mohammed VI has underscored the importance Morocco grants relations with the European Union," said French foreign affairs department spokesman in the wake of the king's state visit to France.

Recalling the king's Monday night address, he said the king pressed, in clear and direct words, for a new kind of partnership with the EU.

The king had called for a partnership that would be both "more and better" than the revised association, and for some more time, something less than the membership which common sense, proximity and daily economic, social and cultural life dictate.

Of the Moroccan-EU association enforced early March, he renewed France's backing to its implementation saying, "Its success is essential in fostering the special partnership between the kingdom and EU we aspire to."

The Quai d'Orsay spokesman underlined the importance of the royal visit saying it helped put in perspective the objectives of cooperation relations between Morocco and France.