The Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki voiced hope, here on Monday that the autonomy project - which Morocco is preparing to solve its thirty-year-old dispute over the Sahara with the Algeria-backed Polisario separatists - would constitute a platform for understanding between all the parties.

At the end of a meeting with Speaker of the upper house, Mustapha Oukacha, the Iranian top diplomat called on the countries of the region to "show understanding to put an end to this problem and concentrate on the huge challenges they have to take up."

The dispute erupted in 1976 when the Polisario laid claims to a former Spanish colony, the Sahara, which Morocco had retrieved in 1975 under the Madrid Accords signed with Spain and Mauritania.

Yesterday, the Iranian FM said his country respects "the wise management by Morocco of the Sahara issue and backs a settlement based on dialogue and cooperation of all parties."

Teheran backs a settlement of the Sahara issue through a peaceful solution based on dialogue and negotiations between the concerned parties, he had declared.

On bilateral relations, Mottaki said his country seeks a more promising future through joint initiatives and projects that can develop the volume of trade exchanges.

For his part, Oukacha pleaded for setting up motivation measures to encourage Iranian investments and for the opening of the Iranian markets on Moroccan products.