The Sahara issue, opposing Morocco to the Algerian-backed Polisario separatists is "the main obstacle" to development in the Maghreb region (a regional grouping also including Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya), President of the Mauritanian Party for Union and Change (PMUC) said on Wednesday.

The British government voiced satisfaction over the continuation of the negotiation process on the Sahara issue under the aegis of the United Nations, says the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in its annual report on human rights in the world, released Tuesday.The "Human Rights Annual report 2007" recalls that the United Kingdom welcomed the talks held in June and August 2007 and January 2008, and encourages the parties to the conflict to continue this process, meant to solve the 32-year-old dispute over this former Spanish colony.

Morocco remains committed to the UN-led negotiations on the Sahara dispute (opposing the North African country and the Algerian-backed separatist movement "Polisario"), reiterated, here Tuesday, the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, making it clear however that these negotiations should be based on the autonomy and "nothing but autonomy".

The proposal to grant broad autonomy to the Sahara region is a "great success" of the Moroccan diplomacy in its efforts to find a final settlement of this regional dispute, "said the president of the Mauritanian Party for Union and Change (PMUC), Mr. Saleh Ould Mohamed Ould Hanana. M. Ould Hanana, who was speaking during an interview on Monday in Rabat with the President of National Rally of Independents (RNI), Mr. Mustapha Mansouri, bilieved that the region would not create a non-viable state, stressing that logic dictates that efforts should rather be directed towards the establishment of a regional grouping.In this context, he wished that a solution could be found as quickly as possible to Sahara conflict, within the framework of resolutions 1754 and 1783 of the Security Council, thereby facilitating the construction of the Arab Maghreb Union .

 Vice President of the Foreign Affairs Commission in the European Parliament, Libor Roucek stressed, on Friday, that the Moroccan initiative to grant a substantial autonomy to the Sahara should be encouraged and discussed. "I believe that the autonomy proposal is a good initiative that should be encouraged and discussed," Mr. Roucek said at the end of his meeting with the Speaker of the House of Representative,  Mustapha Mansouri, Chairman of the Foreign, Defense, and Islamic Affairs Committee, Fouad Ali El Himma, and Chairman of the Socialist group in the parliament, Ahmed Zaidi. According to the Euro-deputy, it is better to give a chance to this proposal as a platform for discussion instead of "keeping the status quo that leads to nowhere and serves nobody."