The next informal talks on the Sahara, at the invitation of the United Nations Secretary-General's Personal Envoy Christopher Ross, will be held in Malta on March 7-9, UN Spokesman Martin Nesirky said on Thursday.

The Moroccan autonomy initiative for the southern provinces "is not one of options, but rather the definitive solution" to settle the Sahara issue, the Spanish journalist and wrtier Chema Gil has said.

Morocco's autonomy proposal for the Sahara is "serious" and "credible", said, on Sunday in Rabat, US Under Secretary for Political Affairs William Burns.

A broad autonomy within a multicultural Morocco is the solution to the Sahara dispute, said the Spanish journalist and writer Javier Valenzuela, who called upon the Spanish left to make a "major revision of its position" on this issue.

The relevance of the Moroccan initiative to grant broad autonomy to the Sahara region has been highlighted by experts in international law taking part in a seminar at Dakhla.