By Sue Pleming
RABAT (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Riceurged a resolution of the Western Sahara dispute on Sunday,saying she saw "good ideas" for solving an impasse that haslong held back north Africa's development.
Rice, ending a regional tour that included a meeting withLibyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli, said on a visit tostaunch ally Morocco that further mediation could help endAfrica's oldest territorial disagreement.
"It is time that it be resolved," she told reporters aftertalks in Rabat with Moroccan officials on issues including thedecades-old dispute between Morocco and the Algerian-backedPolisario Front independence movement.
"There will be a new round of talks soon. We are going tosupport that round, that mediation, there are good ideas on thetable and there are ways to move forward."
"We don't need to start over. I hope that we can moveforward and get this resolved."
The dispute over Western Sahara, which is rich inphosphates and fisheries and potentially has offshore oil, haspoisoned relations between Morocco and Algeria and blockedbadly-needed economic cooperation and growth in north Africa.
The issue also has divided the Security Council, withFrance and the United States backing Morocco but South Africaand others favouring Polisario. Washington wants Sahara'sstatus resolved so regional states can focus on what it sees asthe more important question of combating terrorism.
U.N.-brokered mediation has failed to break a deadlock overwhether the territory should be an autonomous region ofMorocco, as Rabat proposes, or have a referendum of its peopleto decide whether or not it should be independent, as Polisariowants.
Peter Van Walsum, the mediator who led the slow-movingtalks since June 2007, left his job last month after angeringPolisario by making comments that appeared to favour Morocco.U.N. officials in New York have said he will be replaced.
Algeria is the principal ally of Polisario and site of itsheadquarters. Like many African states, Algeria opposesMoroccan control of the territory and sees it as Africa's lastcolony.
COUNTER-TERROR COOPERATION
Polisario waged a low-level guerrilla war in Western Saharafrom 1975 until 1991, when the United Nations brokered a truce.
On Friday Rice made the first trip by a U.S. secretary ofstate to Libya in 55 years, a move intended to end decades ofenmity following the signing of a compensation package to coverlegal claims involving victims of U.S. and Libyan bombings.
"The breakthrough in relations with Libya enables the U.S.to have a Maghreb policy," said Rice, who is making her firsttour of north Africa.
"I heard in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco as well in Libyahow many challenges and opportunities there are in the region."
Many regional commentators have said U.S. policy towardsnorth Africa has lacked coherence, disjointed by Washington'slongstanding preoccupation with Libya.
Rice, who later left for Washington, also lauded close tiesbetween Morocco and the United States and said: "I can think ofno better way to end my trip."
She reiterated that Washington needed close counter-terrorcooperation in the region, which is periodically hit byviolence blamed on al Qaeda. An estimated 125 people werekilled in a surge of violence in Algeria in August in attacksby al Qaeda's north Africa wing and clashes between the armyand militants.
(Additional reporting by Lamine Ghanmi)
(Reporting by Sue Pleming, Writing by William Maclean,Editing by Diana Abdallah)