SAHARA PRESS SERVICE

Algiers, 04/05/2004 (SPS) Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos affirmed on Monday in Algiers that «Algeria and Spain have always defended Saharawi people's right to self-determination», reported Algerian Press Service, APS, on Monday.

In a statement to the press, after an audience Algerian President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has given to him, the Spanish Minister said that the positionsof the two countries « are convergent», recalling that Spain and Algeria «have always defended Saharawi people's right to self-determination».

«The right to self-determination, he indicated, was renewed in UN Security Council's resolution 1541», adding that the two countries hope that WesternSahara's conflict be definitively resolved within the framework of the UN, added the same source.

Hailing Un Security Council adoption of the resolution 1541, the Spanish diplomat underlined that «Spain would like to try to help Saharawi peopleand Morocco to reach a final solution » to the conflict.

«Spain, he asserted, remains committed to helping the two parties to the conflict to reach a solution, and to engage a political dialogue while clearly and firmly respecting Saharawi people's right to self-determination and respecting the framework of the UN as a basis that remains a necessary background» towards the settlement of this question.

On his part, Algerian Foreign Affairs Minister, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, reiterated the basic position of Algeria, underlining that his country considers «that Western Sahara's question is a decolonisation issue, which settlement remains within the UN framework », he recalled.

To a question about an expected reunion between Spain, France, Morocco and Algeria, on Western Sahara's question, Mr. Belkhadem affirmed that «Algeria will not participate to this encounter because Algeria is not a representative of the Saharawi people».

It should be recalled that Mr. Moratinos had declared that Spain is "satisfied" by Security Council's unanimous adoption of the resolution 1541 on Western Sahara when he arrived on Monday to the international airport Houari Boumedienne in Algiers. (SPS)

020/090/700/TRD 041535 May 04 SPS