The human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has formally opened an office in Morocco.

Amnesty said this reflected an improvement in the authorities' attitude towards human rights activists.

The move has been welcomed by the exiled dissident Abraham Serfaty, who said he expected to be able to return to Morocco in July.

Correspondents say Morocco's human rightsrecord has shown a shown a marked improvement in recent years.

But they point out that there is still concern over the lack of information about hundreds of missing Saharaouis, who human rights groups say have been detained by the Moroccan authorities.