United Nations - Morocco and the Polisario Front have agreed to a new UN plan for Western Sahara calling for a referendum on independence for July 2000, the UN Security Council president said yesterday. The 15 council members "welcome the formal acceptance by the two parties" of the new UN proposals," Mr Denis Dangue Rewaka, who is also the ambassador from Gabon, told reporters. The UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, proposed a revised timetable for the referendum, previously set for December 1999.
Voters in the former Spanish colony, annexed by Rabat in 1975, will decide whether to remain part of Morocco or become independent.