U.N. council extends W. Sahara mission

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 (UPI) -- The Security Council Thursday extended for only three months the U.N. Western Sahara mission, the oldest peacekeeping mission in Africa, and its peace plan.

The panel of 15 unanimously called for the participants to work on implementation of the plan worked out by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Personal Envoy, James Baker III, a former U.S. secretary of state. The council also expressed its continued strong support for the long efforts of the two men.

Extension of the 11-year-old U.N. Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara mandate allows for self-determination of the people of the territory as an "optimum political solution" on the basis of agreement between the two parties.

The council was concerned that a lack of progress remained a source of potential instability in Western Sahara and obstructed the economic development of the Maghreb region. It called on the POLISARIO Front to immediately release all remaining prisoners of war.

The conflict arose following the 1976 end of Spain's colonial rule and Morocco's annexation of the territory.