Arab Maghreb Union foreign ministers meet in Algiers this March 19

The council of foreign affairs ministers of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) will meet in Algiers this March 19 at Algeria's initiative, reports Algerian news agency "APS."

The meeting had been decided last January by the five foreign ministers during the Africa-France summit in Yaounde where they had also decided to convene the ministerial specialized commissions (food security, economy and finance, basic infrastructure and human resources).

Experts will be meeting on March 15.

APS also said Algeria has proposed the creation of an ad-hoc group, comprising top officials to ponder on the work methodology of the union and its institutions.

The ministerial council will assess works of the specialized commissions and examine structure modernization, objectives re-assessment and effects of a six-year-long freezing of UMA activities.

Set up in 1989 in Marrakesh by Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, the UMA has been frozen since 1995 due to disputes between member countries, especially between Algeria and Morocco over Algiers' direct involvement in the Moroccan Sahara issue.

After the food security commission met in Rabat last month, three other commissions namely those of human resources, infrastructure and economy and finance met respectively in Mauritania, Tunisia and Libya, marking a resumption of the UMA activities.