New round of talks on Western Sahara.

Secretary-General javier Perez de Cuellar, in the exercise of his good offices' mission for the peaceful resolution of the question of Western Sahara, visited North Africa in late March, where he had talks with the leaders of Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (POLISARIO).

On his arrival on 23 March at Marrakesh, Morocco, he said that he had come to the region to speed up the peace process. "The new atmosphere of reconciliation and of peaceful solutions to problems makes it all the more important to move forward towards a positive and rapid solution to the Western Sahara problem", he added.

During the North African trip, the Secretary-General met with King Hassan II of Morocco in Rabat and with Mohamed Abdelaziz, SecretaryGeneral of POLISARIO, in Tindouf, Algeria. He also had talks with President Chadli Benjedid of Algeria, whose country is an official observer to the peace process. A meeting was held at the expert level between the UN delegation and Moroccan officials.

Attending the discussions was his new Special Representative on Western Sahara, johannes Manz, a national of Switzerland, who on 19 Januarv succeeded Hector Cros Espiell of Uruguay.

The General Assembly on 11 December (resolution 44188) welcomed the efforts of the Secretary-General and the current Chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to promote a just and lasting solution to the question of Western Sahara, and urged them to intensify their efforts in that regard.

The Secretary-General told the press that in his talks with the Moroccan side and POLISARIO, he had found "a more propitious atmosphere" and a greater political will to move forward. "That does not mean, however, that all obstacles have been resolved", he noted. What was important was that both sides had accepted the holding of a referendum, which the UN and the OAU must ensure is impartial.