UN calls for direct talks on Western Sahara

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 30 (Reuters) The UN Security Council called on Morocco and Western Sahara's independence movement today to start UN-sponsored talks over the territory and diplomats said both sides had accepted the call.

The Council urged direct talks, without preconditions, to resolve the three-decade-old dispute over the former Spanish colony in a unanimous resolution that also renewed the mandate of the small UN peacekeeping force in the desert territory.

''We want negotiations to start unconditionally and I am happy that all sides have agreed to do that,'' US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters.

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