U.N Representative for Sahara Meets Algerian Premier

Special representative of the U.N secretary general for the Sahara, william Eagleton, met here on Wednesday with Algerian Premier Smail Hamdani.

The Algerian official renewed his country's "attachment to the U.N settlement on the Sahara and to the Houston accords, aimed at holding a referendum" in the Sahara, an Algerian official source said.

The United Nations is trying to organize a referendum in which the population of the sahara would say whether they want this former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accords to remain Moroccan territory or stand on its own as claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario secessionists.

Repeatedly postponed, the voting, supervised by a UN mission deployed in the territory since 1991 was tentatively set for July 2000 but was once again delayed as the handling of 79,000 appeals by persons of sahrawi descent who were not included in the UN voter lists will be a lengthy process.

Eagleton had earlier met with the Algerian foreign minister, Ahmed Attaf.

The U.N official made last week a trip to Mauritania where he met president Mouaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya.

A source at the Mauritanian foreign ministry said the UN official informed Taya of the UN secretary general Kofi Annan's decision to delay to an ulterior date the referendum.