The European Union has reaffirmed its support for a "just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution" to the Sahara issue.

Moroccan Foreign Minister Taib Fassi Fihri has said the Moroccan delegation stressed, during the third informal talks on the Sahara, which ended on Tuesday evening in the outskirts of New York, the need to give "fresh momentum to negotiations based on a new methodology to overcome the status quo.

The third informal meeting, preparatory to the 5th round of negotiations aimed at finding a final, political solution to the regional dispute over the Sahara, opened on Monday in Manhasset (near New York) in the presence of delegations from Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and polisario, the United Nations (UN) said.

The operation of distributing plots of land in Laayoune reinforces efforts in order to enable disadvantaged groups to accede to social housing, as part of a comprehensive approach aimed at improving the living conditions of populations.

Morocco will participate in the third informal meeting on the Sahara, due in New York outskirts on November 7-9, building on a negotiations approach which confirms the spirit of consensus, realism and the autonomy plan's democratic dimensions, Foreign Minister Taib Fassi Fihri said on Thursday in Rabat.