U.N. denies rumors on postponement of Annan's North Africa tour

The United Nations denied on Wednesday that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan postponed his projected tour in North Africa.

Annan will leave New York on Friday towards Europe, before starting his North Africa tour on Saturday 7 from Nouakchott, the Secretary-General's spokesman, Fred Eckhard told reporters.

Rumors have been circulated on the postponement of the tour in view of Iraq's decision to stop cooperating with the U.N. special commission in charge of Iraqi disarmament (UNSCOM).

Annan's tour in the region follows his recent report that was adopted by the U.N. Security Council, wherein he proposed his own arbitration to break the deadlock in the identification of would-be voters in the self-determination referendum in the Sahara.

Kofi Annan imputed the deadlock "primarily to the inability of the Moroccan Government and the Frente Polisario to reach a compromise on the much debated issue of tribal groupings H41, H61 and J51/52."

The U.N. had previously said that with the identification of 147,000 applicants wishing to take part in the referendum, the identification was completed, except for the contested tribes H41, H61 and J51/52 (groups that fled the Spanish occupation and who are denied eligibility by the Polisario).

The much-delayed vote, proposed by Morocco, is designed to determine whether the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accords, sets up on its own, as claimed by the Polisario, or be incorporated into Morocco.