Morocco refuses to receive Israeli premier, Arab daily says

Morocco has refused to receive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the conclusion last week of the interim peace accords between Israelis and Palestinians, the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat daily reported.

The daily quoted Moroccan diplomatic sources it described as "high ranking" as saying that Netanyahu asked to make a stopover in Rabat on his way back to Israel from the US.

The daily said the Moroccan sources justified the refusal to receive the Likud leader by the fact that the Wye Plantation accord does not cover "the key issues of the Middle-East peace process to which Morocco gives a keen interest."

"This is the second time that the Moroccan authorities refused to receive Netanyahu," the daily said. Two years ago he was denied a stopover in Rabat while he was on his way back to Tel Aviv from Washington.