Arab Maghreb Union, implement for progress and prosperity, Tunisian president says

The Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) is today the best implement to win the battle of progress and prosperity in the region and to help the region take up the challenges of the third millennium, said Tunisia's president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

President Ben Ali who was delivering a speech on the occasion of Tunisia's independence day said there is a genuine determination to overcome "the difficulties that have so far hampered the UMA process" and to step up efforts to give a new momentum to the union's mechanisms to be able to face up the future challenges.

The UMA, set up in Marrakesh in 1989 by Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, is paralyzed due to strained relations between Morocco and Algeria over Algiers' direct involvement in the Sahara issue and due to Libya's criticism of the UMA countries' respect of the sanctions enforced against it.President Ben Ali who paid a state visit to Morocco this March 15-16 said "our recent meeting with our brother H.M. King Hassan II was marked by optimism and resolve to fulfill these goals and restore the UMA construction process on the desired path the soonest possible."

Morocco and Tunisia renewed at the official talks held during President Ben Ali's visit to the kingdom aspiration to revive the Arab Maghreb Union that they described as a strategic option and a historic gain.

"Morocco's King Hassan II and Tunisia's president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali renewed their determination to revive the Arab Maghreb Union and to reactivate its action as it is an immutable and irreversible strategic option, a historic gain, and a civilizational project laying the bases for a common future," said a joint statement released at the end of president Ben Ali's visit to Morocco.

In his independence day speech, the Tunisian President expressed confidence that the other Maghreban leaders are spurred by the same will and the same resolve to ensure success to what he described as "our noble move."