RABAT: Morocco`s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said on Monday thatarecentproposalby a United Nations envoy to partition the disputed territory of Western Sahara was `unacceptable`, citing past rejections of similar plans.

In a closed session of the UN Security Council last week, Western Sahara envoy Staffan de Mistura proposed dividing the territory between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front in order to resolve a decades-old conflict.

Bourita said de Mistura had already made the proposal in a visit to Morocco in April, which the kingdom had rejected.

`Morocco has not and will not even accept hearing the proposal, because it contradicts the kingdom and Moroccans` principled position that the Sahara is Moroccan,` Bourita told a press conference in the capital Rabat.

Western Sahara is largely controlled by Morocco but the Polisario Front which is backed by Morocco`s regional rival Algeria has campaigned for independence for the territory since before colonial ruler Spain pulled out in 1975. It is considered a `non-autonomous territory` by the United Nations.

Rabat, which controls some 80 per cent of the vast expanse, advocates a plan for limited autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty.

The Polisario Front is calling for a referendum on self-determination under the aegis of the UN, which had been planned when a ceasefire was signed in 1991 but never implemented.

De Mistura, a 77-yearold Italian-Swedish diplomat, has been UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres` personal envoy for the territory for the past three years.-AFP