Libya and Tunisia have decided to take steps to resolve a dispute over western Sahara which has set Algeria against Morocco and threatened to upset the Arab Maghreb Union, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi said Wednesday.
"I have agreed with the Tunisian president to work towards a solution between Algeria and Morocco in order to protect the Arab Maghreb Union," Kadhafi, who arrived here Monday, told Tunisian students.
The seven year-old Arab Maghreb Union, which is made up of Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia, is going through a serious crisis because of the dispute between Algeria and Morocco.
The issue of the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara is "the direct cause" of the crisis, Kadhafi said.
"Morocco is making accusations and Algeria is defending itself, and it looks like the problem is being used as a pretext for blocking the process of the Arab Maghreb Union," he said.
The Sahrawi Polisario Front began fighting Morocco, which claims sovereignty over the Western Sahara, in 1975. Polisario is seeking the independence of the Western Sahara. A ceasefire has been in force for five years.
Algeria has long backed Polisario's efforts to promote sovereignty for the former Spanish colony.
The United Nations has undertaken to organise a referendum on self-determination in the territory, but its efforts have stalled in the face of obstacles from both sides.
Polisario and Morocco notably disagree on who should be entitled to vote in the referendum. Many Sahrawis live in exile and many Moroccans have settled in the territory.
The Arab Maghreb Union stopped being operational last year after Morocco protested against Algeria's attitude towards Western Sahara.
Kadhafi said he believed there was "an American-Zionist plot" against the Arab Maghreb Union, and that whoever was "blocking the (union's) process" necessarily became a part of the plot.
He denounced Morocco for blocking the whole union, saying it could have simply pulled out.
Kadhafi arrived overland from Libya because of the air embargo imposed on his country since 1992 and is due to stay until Friday.