United Nations - Disagreements over who is eligible to vote in a referendum - originally set for next July 31st - on the future of the Western Sahara means postponing the ballot for at least 18 months, to 2002, the United Nations said yesterday.
In a report to the UN Security Council, the secretary general, Mr Kofi Annan, said disagreements between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front "seem to allow little possibility of holding the referendum before 2002 or even beyond."