The Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs began Thursday, the works of its first regular session for 2009.

Regional integration in the Maghreb cannot be achieved without finding a solution to the Sahara issue that takes into account the Moroccan proposal to grant broad autonomy to the region, a report by the "Potomac Institute" said Tuesday.

Participants at a conference Monday in Brussels, called the European Union to support the Moroccan autonomy initiative as "the only realistic and feasible" solution to the Sahara issue.

Morocco's plan to grant autonomy to its southern provinces, the Sahara, is a "serious initiative" to reach a final solution to the Sahara conflict, Head of the Unit for the Middle East and North Africa at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Helena Tuuri, said, here Wednesday.

The chairman of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs announces that according to articles 8 and 9 of the Royal decree N 1.06.81 published on march 25th, 2006, aiming at the creation of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan affairs, that the first ordinary session of the council of 2009 will take place on April 2 and 3 in Rabat, this session will discuss the following topics: