Mauritanian president receives U.N. Sahara envoy

President Mouaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya of Mauritania received on Wednesday the new special representative of the United Nations secretary-general for the Sahara, William Eagleton.

Eagleton had started a tour in the region with a visit to Morocco, during which he was received by King Hassan II.

He was expected in Algeria Wednesday evening, before returning to Laayoune to take up his office.

William Eagleton has been recently appointed Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for the Sahara in replacement of Charles Dunbar. He will supervise the upcoming stages of the self-determination referendum the United Nations has been trying to hold in the Sahara since the beginning of the 1990's. The vote is slated for July, 2000.

The consultation seeks to determine whether the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975, sets up on its own as claimed by the Polisario, or remains part of Morocco.