RABAT, March 20 (NNN-KUNA) -- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, Christopher Ross continued here on Friday talks with Moroccan officials aiming at ending conflict over the disputed area.

"Morocco is clinging on unity of its soil, as well as being open for negotiations over a proposal on self-autonomy in western regions in a bid to reach a peaceful solution to the dispute," Speaker of House of Representatives Mustapha Al-Mansouri said in a press release after meeting with Ross earlier on Friday.

Appreciating efforts exerted by the UN in this regard, Al-Mansouri outlined that the UN official came to be briefed with points of view of political powers and state officials on the matter, in light of indirect negotiations that took place in the last few months.

In this connection, Ross had earlier held talks with head Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs.

Ross began a visit to Rabat last Wednesday and held discussions with King Mohammad VI. His visit will end on March 25, with visits to Tindouf, Nouakchott and Algiers.
Western Sahara is a largely Moroccan-controlled territory in North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.

The 266,000-square-kilometer land is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly consisting of desert flatlands.

It is on the UN's list of non-self-governing territories since the 1960s when it was a Spanish colony.

Morocco and the Polisario Front independence movement, with its Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) government, dispute control of the territory. -- NNN-KUNA