"The best solution to this conflict of the past century is to enable Sahrawi families to meet again," Mr. Fernandez Martin told MAP following a meeting with a group of Moroccan Sahrawis on a visit to the European Parliament to testify on the ordeal they underwent by the Polisario in the Camps of Tindouf, south-western Algeria.

    The Polisario is a separatist movement that lays claims to Morocco's Southern Provinces, known as the Sahara, a territory which Morocco had retrieved from Spanish rule under the Madrid Accord signed in 1975 with Spain and Mauritania.

    A year later, Polisario lured thousands of Moroccan Sahrawis into joining it in the Tindouf camps where they have been held ever since.

    The European official, who visited several times the camps of Tindouf, said it is not the first time he is informed of Polisario"s human rights breaches, describing as "a viable solution" Morocco's autonomy initiative to end the more than 30-year-old conflict over the Sahara.