Morocco king vows slums clean-up

By Pascale Harter
BBC News, Rabat

Many thousands of Moroccans live in poverty

Morocco's king has launched a programme to improve the country's slums, seen as recruiting grounds for radical Islam.

King Mohammed VI's announcement comes two days after the second anniversary of the Casablanca terrorist attacks.

He said the problem was the country's most serious social issue, and made a reference to Islamic extremists preying on Morocco's poor.

It was young men from the city slums who carried out the suicide bombings that left 45 dead in May 2003.

Their poverty and desperation apparently made them ready recruits for Islamic extremist cells.

Declining job prospects

"Any exploitation of social misery aiming at political ends, at nurturing extremist inclinations... cannot be morally accepted," said King Mohammed, unveiling his new programme.

Expected to cost some 1bn dirhams ($114.3m) a year, it will bring the basics of clean water and schools to the dusty, corrugated iron wastelands, where so many thousands of Moroccans live.

Their main job prospects are fast disappearing.

Ninety thousand jobs in Morocco's textiles industry are under threat from Chinese competition.

As the factories close one after another, even the king seems afraid that the extremists may soon be the only ones recruiting in Morocco's slums.