New Envoy to Tackle Sahara Deadlock

The UN appointed a new mediator yesterday to solve the problem of Western Sahara, days after the former US secretary of state, James Baker, announced his resignation.

The handover to a Peruvian diplomat, Alvaro de Soto, came after Morocco, which annexed much of the potentially oil-rich territory 25 years ago, blocked Mr Baker's referendum plan.

Mr Baker, who was meant to use his clout as an international big hitter to force a solution, resigned as Mr Annan's special envoy at the weekend after seven frustrating years.

With British companies among those vying for a share of what they hope are potential oil and mineral riches along the Atlantic coastline, the digging-in of heels that has stopped a UN-organised referendum for the past 13 years shows no sign of letting up. In the meantime, 160,000 native Saharawi people must continue to subsist in desert refugee camps behind a vast sand wall, littered with land-mines, put up across the desert by the Moroccan army.

The refugees in these camps, where underground wells are slowly being polluted, depend on £20m a year food aid.

Although Western Sahara is bigger than Britain, it has only around 260,000 inhabitants. Morocco and Mauritania jointly annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975, but resistance from the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, made up mainly of the semi-nomadic Saharawi people, saw Mauritania forced to withdraw.

The Polisario proved tough, effective desert fighters. With their rudimentary arms but intimate knowledge of the desert they were able to fight the Moroccans to a standstill and a UN-brokered ceasefire was signed in 1991.

That was meant to lead to a referendum on the territory's future, but arguments over who should be allowed to vote, with Morocco accused of bussing in migrants from the north, have rumbled on.

Wessex Exploration, a London-based company, has become the target of a letter-writing campaign from Polisario supporters after winning a licence from Morocco to survey for oil in Western Sahara. Total, of France, and the US firm Kerr-McGee are reported to have struck similar deals.

Two other British companies, Premier Oil and Sterling Energy, meanwhile, have won contracts with the Polisario Front as oil finds off neighbouring Mauritania suggest Western Sahara may provide more than its known reserves of phosphates.

Mr Baker's latest compromise proposal was to make Western Sahara a semi-autonomous part of Morocco for four to five years, followed by a referendum offering independence, continued semi-autonomy or integration with Morocco.

The Polisario Front welcomed that plan but Morocco said it would only accept "autonomy within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty".

Ahmed Boukhari, a spokesman for the Polisario Front, said of Mr Baker's departure "This is a serious setback to the UN effort for resolving the West Sahara issue".