Security Council extends mission for two months

The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday extended by two months the mandate of its 10-year-old mission to Western Sahara to further efforts towards a referendum aimed at enabling the people of the disputed territory to choose between independence and integration with Morocco. In a unanimous resolution, the Council expressed hope that Morocco and the Polisario Front would keep trying to try to resolve the many problems blocking the implementation of a plan for the resolution of the conflict "and try to agree upon a mutually acceptable political solution to their dispute". The former US secretary of state, James Baker III, who is UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, will continue to lead the world body's efforts to achieve a peaceful settlement of the dispute. Morocco took over the former Spanish colony in 1976. POLISARIO responded by mounting a guerrilla war for independence. A ceasefire was concluded about a decade ago. [For more information on MINURSO see http://www.un.org/Depts/DPKO/Missions/minurso/minursoB.htm]