The statement was made at a press conference with his Moroccan counterpart, Mohammed Benaissa, with whom he examined the ways and means of boosting bilateral relations and matters of common interest at the regional and international levels. Following the two officials' talks, a cooperation agreement in tourism was signed.
Mr. Benaissa, on a two-day official visit to the Ukraine, lauded Kiev's constructive stance with regard to the North African country's territorial integrity.
The diplomatic chief of Morocco also held talks with Alexandre Tchaly, in charge of international relations, to whom he conveyed a verbal message from king Mohammed VI of Morocco to the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yuchenko. He also had talks with other Ukrainian officials.
The Sahara dispute broke out in 1976 when the Polisario, backed by Morocco's eastern neighbor, Algeria, started laying claims to the territory, a former Spanish colony that was ceded to the North African country in 1975 under the Madrid Accord. The Polisario continues to hold thousands of Moroccans against their will in the Tindouf camps (south western Algeria).
In accordance with the UNSG resolution 1754 (of April 30) that called upon the parties to the dispute to enter into negotiations "in good faith and without preconditions," Morocco and the Polisario held the first round of UN-sponsored negotiations on the Sahara in Manhasset (New York Outskirts). The parties have agreed to resume talks in the same venue in the second week of August.
The United Nations Security Council, which convened on Wednesday in a closed-door session to discuss the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon’s report on the status and progress of the negotiations on Sahara, voiced hope that the parties will use the next round of negotiations to engage "in good faith in substantial negotiations."