The Moroccan proposal to grant autonomy to the southern provinces, the Sahara, reflects Morocco's clear and sincere commitment to find a solution to the Sahara issue, said on Saturday in Kortrijk (north-west Belgium) a member of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS).

The Network of Associations of the Moroccan community in Italy welcomed the support to autonomy plan expressed by the Minister of International Cooperation of the Italian region of Tuscany (North), Mr. Massimo Toschi, and his condemnation of "tragic and inhumane" situation of people sequestered in Tindouf in southwest Algeria.

There is a possibility to resume negotiations in mid-February, said Sunday in Addis Ababa, Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon.

The Moroccan law, which lays down not only rights and guarantees, but also duties and responsibilities, "applies and will apply to the Moroccan Sahara in accordance with the international practice," Moroccan Foreign minister Taïb Fassi Fihri said in a letter to the UN Secretary General.

The observance of human rights in the Tindouf camps is incumbent on Algeria, which cannot "subcontract" this issue to the "Polisario," Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday in Rabat.