King Hassan holds second meeting with UN secretary general

King Hassan II held Tuesday a second work session with United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, on the third day of his visit to Morocco, part of a tour in the North African region that already took him to Mauritania.

The king and the UN chief held tete-a-tete talks before they were joined by Crown Prince Sidi Mohammed, Prince Moulay Rachid, the delegation accompanying Annan and some members of the Moroccan cabinet.

Annan's delegation comprised his special representative for the Sahara, Charles Dunbar, Assistant-secretary general for peace-keeping operations, Hedi Annabi, Chairman of the MINURSO identification commission, Robert Francis Kinloch, resident-representative of the UN Development program in Morocco, Bouna Semou Diof, assistant-secretary general, Elizabeth Lindenpayer, and general director at the UNO, Louise Laheurte.

The members of the Moroccan government, who attended the meeting between King Hassan II and Annan are prime minister, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, Abdellatif Filali, interior minister, Driss Basri, the king's advisor, Driss Slaoui and Morocco's permanent representative to the UN, Ahmed Snoussi.

On the same day, the UN secretary general conferred with the prime minister, the foreign affairs and cooperation minister, the minister of the interior and Morocco's delegate to the UN.

Youssoufi told reporters after the meeting that Moroccan officials listened to the secretary general and submitted him Morocco's remarks. He added that talks will continue through diplomatic channels.

The UN secretary general also met speakers of the two chambers of the parliament, Abdelouahed Radi and Mohamed Jalal Essaid, and heads of the parliamentary groups.

For Radi, speaker of the house of representatives, Annan has a coherent idea on Morocco's concerns over the issue of its territorial unity. He added that during the meeting with the UN secretary general, the nation's representatives stressed that the major problem now lies in the identification of some 65,000 Moroccan sahrawis who belong to tribes to whom the polisario is denying the right to vote in the referendum slated for December 1999.