Maghreb union must care for member states' territorial integrity, minister

The Moroccan minister of communication and spokesman for the government has said that the construction of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) can only be achieved on the basis of "a global approach" that takes into account the territorial integrity of member countries.

Nabil Benabdallah who was interviewed Monday by Radio France International, said "we cannot conceive a strong Maghreb while we still have differences." He was commenting the decision by the foreign ministers council of this North African regional grouping (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania) to postpone, on Libya's request, the UMA summit that was due in Algiers December 23-24.

Although Libya did not explain the reason for her request to postpone this summit, the first that was to be held since 1994, the Algerian foreign minister said Tripoli requested this postponement for "internal reasons."

The Moroccan minister said the statement issued by the UMA ministers council meeting underlines the necessity of seeking means to reactivate the Union, adding that Morocco is ready for efforts to lower pending problems, for the benefit of Maghreb peoples.

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. The former Spanish colony was retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under a tripartite agreement between Morocco, Spain and Mauritania, but the Algeria-backed separatist movement "Polisario" has ever since been claiming independence of the territory.

Benabdellah reaffirmed the importance of the UMA building process underlining that in time of regional groupings, "We can not remain apart from this trend for we have wasted enough time."