Nearly half of the 435-member of the U.S. House of Representatives have urged President George W. Bush to support Morocco's proposal to grant substantial autonomy to its Southern Provinces, the Sahara in a bid to solve the three-decade long dispute over the former Spanish colony.

A Spanish association which supports the theses of the separatist movement has expressed its astonishment to the fate of a humanitarian aid sent last week to Tindouf camps situated in  south-west of Algeria added the Spanish daily newspaper "la voz de Avilles".

The Moroccan Initiative for the negotiation of an autonomy statute in the Sahara has provided a "real progress" towards achieving a final settlement of the Sahara issue, said, here Monday, German Minister of State for Europe, Gunter Gloser.

France said, on Wednesday, that it is high time to find a realistic solution to the Sahara issue that is acceptable to all the parties, within the framework of the United Nations.