This came in a letter sent to King Mohammed VI in which the US leader also hailed as "serious and credible" Morocco's initiative and "thanked" the Moroccan monarch for his "leadership and resolve to put an end to this conflict," Moroccan governmental sources said on Friday.

    President Bush voiced his country's hope to see the parties engage in a deeper manner in the negotiations process underway, in accordance with  the UN Security Council's call for more substantial negotiations in a spirit of realism and compromise.

    Last month, a State Department spokesman said that, in Washington's view "some form of autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the only realistic way forward to resolve this longstanding conflict."

    "An independent Sahrawi state is not a realistic option," he insisted in reaction to the adoption by the U.N. Security Council of resolution 1813 calling on the parties in the conflict to engage in substantive negotiations.

    "We urge the parties to focus future discussions on a mutually-acceptable autonomy," the official said reaffirming that his country "will support these efforts by broadening our own engagement with the parties over the coming weeks and months."

    Morocco’s autonomy proposal was also praised by France’s representative to the U.N. Jean-Maurice Ripert, who said “the autonomy plan is a basis for serious and constructive negotiations to reach a negotiated solution between the parties, in respect of the principle of self-determination.”

    The Security Council’s resolution came a week after UN Personal Envoy for the Sahara  Peter Van Walsum said that an independent Western Sahara was not a realistic proposition.

    "My conclusion that an independent Western Sahara is not an attainable goal is relevant today because it lies at the root of the current negotiation process," Mr. Walsum was quoted as telling the Council during a closed-door meeting.

    His remarks were backed by US Ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, who told the press that Van Walsum's ideas were "worthy of serious consideration."

    "He is a man who has spent a lot of time working on this issue and presented an assessment as well as frank suggestions which are worthy of serious consideration," he said.

    Echoing him, the UK Permanent Representative to the UN, Sir John Sawers, welcomed Ban Ki-Moon's personal envoy's work, stressing that Morocco's autonomy proposal deserves "serious consideration".

    "The Moroccan proposal deserves serious consideration and, now, it is upon the parties involved in the dispute to move forward," he told the press, noting that it incumbent on Van Walsum to "try to push, the best he can, the [negotiations] process."

    Morocco and the "Polisario" have been disputing, since 1976, the control of the Sahara, a year after the former colonial power, Spain, ceded the territory to the North African country under the Madrid Accords.

    Both parties have so far held four rounds of UN-led talks in presence of representatives from Algeria and Mauritania as observers. A fifth round is expected but no date and venue have been set yet.

 Source: MAP
News and events on Western Sahara issue / Corcas