Morocco and Polisario agree to talk

Morocco and Western Sahara's independence movement have agreed to UN-sponsored talks over the territory after the Security Council asked them to negotiate an end to their three-decade-old dispute.

The council on Monday urged talks without pre-conditions between Morocco and the Polisario movement in a unanimous resolution that also renewed the mandate of the 220-strong UN peacekeeping force in the northwest African territory.

"We want negotiations to start unconditionally and I am happy that all sides have agreed to do that," Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador, said, though he said the parties had accepted the resolution "reluctantly".

Western Sahara, larger than Britain but with a population of just 260,000, has lucrative phosphate reserves, rich fishing grounds and potentially oil.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7EB6326C-8585-4A7C-A1BA-15D84D984907.htm