The biased allegations about a few individual cases in the Sahara can by no means veil the tragic plight of the populations held against their will in Tindouf camps, in the Algerian territory, the Foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

The Polisario refuses to conduct population census in Tindouf camps (south-western Algeria) to get more humanitarian aid, professor of history at the Autonomous University of Madrid Bernabe Lopez Garcia said.

Spain's Foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos stressed, here Monday, the importance of solving the Sahara conflict for the integration of the Maghreb.

Spokesman of the UN Secretary-General Martin Niserky termed as an "important step" the holding of the informal talks on the Sahara, which started Wednesday in the outskirts of New York, in preparation of intense and substantial negotiations.

The United States welcomed the announcement of the second set of informal talks on the Sahara, due February 10-11 in the city of Armonk, New York outskirts, US Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Philip J. Crowley said on Tuesday.