Maghreban states hold emergency meeting on Libya's decision to renounce UMA chairmanship

Member-countries of the UMA (French acronym for Arab Maghreb Union) are holding emergency talks following Libya's decision to renounce the grouping chairmanship, a Libyan official source said this Thursday.

Tunisian president, Zine Abidine Ben Ali, on Wednesday talked on the phone with Libyan leader Moammar Kadhafi to whom he expressed his country's "strong worries" over the Libyan decision.

Libya announced on Wednesday it is renouncing the UMA chairmanship following the repeated violations by some member countries of the Union founding treaty and of agreements concluded between member states.

The Libyan official release cited the frozen UMA activities and mechanisms, the inefficiency of specialized commissions, and the failure to implement agreements reached by the member countries, particularly those related to the UMA citizens free movement, labour, stay and property.

Set up in Marrakesh in 1989 by Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, the union held its last summit in 1994 in Tunis while its statute provides for a summit to convene once a year alternately in each of the five member countries.

A summit was slated in December 23 in Algeria but was put off because of divergences between member states.

Two of its member states, Morocco and Algeria, are at loggerheads as a result of Algeria's financial and diplomatic support to the Polisario that claims the separation of Moroccan southern provinces, retrieved by Morocco in 1975, from the rest of Morocco.

Mauritania is also accusing Libya of sponsoring authors of a failed coup attempt against its president.