Libyan leader Moamar Khadafi held on Tuesday a further round of talks in Tripoli with King Mohammed VI of Morocco, focusing on bilateral relations and a dispute between Algeria and Morocco, reported AFP, citing the official JANA news agency.
"We discussed bilateral relations and relations between Algeria and Morocco," the Libyan leader told the press after the meeting. "Libya is trying to resolve the differences between those two countries."
The Western Sahara is at the heart of a conflict between Algeria and Morocco, with Algiers supporting the Polisario Front, which has been contesting sovereignty over the area with Rabat since 1975, said AFP.
"We are using our efforts to convince the non-African Arab countries to rejoin their African brothers and form a (geopolitical) Arab-African area," Kadhafi added.
The king's visit is the first since the king ascended to the throne in July 1999. It is aimed at promoting bilateral cooperation, and studying ways to relaunch the Maghreb Arab Union (MAU), a north African body whose activities have been frozen since 1995 over Algiers' and Rabat's dispute over Western Sahara, said the agency.
Besides Algeria, Libya and Morocco, the union includes Mauritania and Tunisia.
According to latest figures, ArabicNews.com reported that trade deals between Libya and Morocco amounted in 1999 to 400 million dollars.
There are only few joint investments in the private and public sectors.
Cultural cooperation is also short of the two people's aspirations, ArabicNews.com said.
Nearly 100,000 Moroccan expatriates have settled in Libya and work in tourism, trade, construction and the professions.
A high joint commission meets every year under the co-chairmanship of the two countries' prime ministers to follow up bilateral cooperation, said ArabicNews.com.
After his visit to Tripoli, the Moroccan king is due to travel to Cameroon to attend the 21st Franco-Africa summit, set for January 18-19, said AFP -- Albawaba.com
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