Morocco says no deadline set to answer Annan's proposals on Sahara

Morocco on Thursday said no deadline was set to respond to the proposals made by the U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, for the relaunching of the U.N. settlement plan in the Sahara.

"No deadline was set to answer Annan's proposals," Spokesman of the Moroccan government, Khalid Alioua, told reporters in Rabat.

Morocco was supposed to provide answer to Annan's proposals by the end of this month, but the change in the secretary-general's time-table delayed this, Alioua added.

Last November 11, Annan interrupted a 10-day North Africa tour to return to New York because of the Iraq-U.N. crisis.

U.N. officials said the U.N. chief would return to the region on November 29 to continue his mission to reactivate the process to settle the Sahara issue through the holding of a self-determination referendum.