The Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, has resumed his North African tour aimed at resolving the impasse over a UN peace plan for Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara.

Later today he is due to visit the desert camps in Algeria which house one hundred-and-fifty-thousand refugees.

Mr Annan will also meet leaders of the Polisario Front, which is supported by Algeria and wants independence for Western Sahara.

The organisation has been locked in a dispute with Rabat over who is eligible to vote in a UN-sponsored referendum on the sovereignty of the territory.