Morocco and the Polisario independence movement opened their first direct talks in 10 years in a New York suburb to try to break the impasse in their 32-year-old dispute over the Western Sahara.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon's envoy for Western Sahara, Peter Van Walsum, is hosting the two-day, closed meeting in a secluded estate in Manhasset.
Representatives of Algeria and Mauritania, as well as of the so-called Group of Friends of Western Sahara -- France, Britain, Spain, the United States and Russia -- are also attending, but are not taking part in the direct talks between the parties.
Morocco annexed the phosphate-rich northwest African territory after the withdrawal of former colonial ruler Spain and neighbor Mauritania in the 1970s, settling it with around 300,000 Moroccans in 1975.
After 16 years of war, a ceasefire between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario was declared in 1991. But Rabat repeatedly pushed back a promised self-determination referendum and since 2002 has insisted such a plebiscite is not necessary.
Also attending Monday's opening session in Manhasset was UN under secretary general for political affairs Lynn Pascoe on behalf of UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
"Today marks the beginning of a new phase in the search for a solution," Pascoe said in his opening remarks as relayed by UN spokeswoman Michele Montas.
He urged the parties "to proceed in good faith and to establish an atmosphere of mutual trust and expressed the firm commitment of the United Nations to assist in the negotiations."
Pascoe stressed that "the stalemate is becoming intolerable and that the dispute must be brought to a conclusion through a mutually agreed solution that would provide for self-determination of the people of Western Sahara."
"The time has come for a solution. We wish you the best of luck and reiterate our commitment to assist this Process in every way possible," he added.
The UN secretary general is to report to the Security Council by June 30 on the progress in the talks.
Monday's meeting comes in response to a call by the Security Council last April 30 for the two sides to launch direct, UN-sponsored talks without preconditions for self-determination in Western Sahara.
Last Thursday, Morocco said it was looking to "turn the page" in the Manhasset coming talks.
In April, it proposed an autonomy referendum that envisages giving Sahrawis "control over their affairs through legislative, executive and judicial institutions" under Moroccan sovereignty, and calls for "negotiations for a political solution acceptable to all parties."
But Rabat insisted however that any settlement must include Algeria, the main backer of the Polisario.
The Polisario, which rejected the latest Moroccan referendum proposal and instead upheld "the right of the (local) people for self-determination," signaled readiness to have the Moroccan proposal tested in a UN-monitored referendum.
"The fate of Western Sahara belongs to the Sahrawi people," Polisario chief Mohamed Abdelaziz said Friday in an interview with the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite television channel. "We are not opposed to having the Moroccan proposal presented to the Sahrawi people within the framework of a UN-supervised free and democratic referendum."
But Monday, Polisario representative M'hamed Kheddad told Algerian radio by telephone from New York that his group will make no concessions on the principle of self-determination.
"Self-determination belongs to the (local) Sahrawi people and no one is in a position to make concessions on this question related to their sovereignty," he said. "We are not asking for the impossible. We are asking that our people be consulted on their future."
Last April, the Security Council also took note of the two parties' rival plans to settle their 32-year-old dispute and renewed the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) for another six months.
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