Christopher Ross is expected to visit Tindouf, the town in southwest Algeria near the border of Western Sahara where there are camps of refugees who fled the former Spanish colony, a Spanish diplomatic source told AFP in Rabat on Saturday.
Ross will hold talks with the two sides in the conflict in Western Sahara, the Polisario Front independence movement and Morocco, which annexed the territory in 1975.
He will also talk to officials in Algeria and Mauritania, which border Western Sahara.
It is the fourth visit to the region Ross has made since becoming special envoy in January 2009. He is seeking to restart direct negotiations under UN auspices between Morocco and the Polisario on the future of Western Sahara.
The two sides were able to bridge their differences during a round of informal talks outside New York in February.
Morocco’s 1975 annexation of the territory sparked a war between its forces and the Polisario guerrillas.
The two sides agreed to a ceasefire in 1991 but the UN-sponsored talks on Western Sahara’s future have since made no headway.
Rabat has pledged to grant Western Sahara widespread autonomy but rules out independence.
The Polisario Front, with the support of Algiers, wants a referendum on self-determination, with independence as one of the options.
Source: news24.com