The UN chief Ban Ki-moon's Personal Envoy for the Sahara, Christopher Ross, said on Thursday in Armonk that the informal talks on the Sahara "took place in an atmosphere of serious engagement, frankness, and mutual respect."

Upon the invitation of the United Nations Secretary General's Personal Envoy, Christopher Ross, Morocco will take part, on February 9-11, in the city of Armonk in New York outskirts, in the second informal meeting in preparation for the fifth round of negotiations aiming to find a political and final solution to the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara.

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.