The North African heads of state summit due to be held this week in the Libyan capital has been indefinitely postponed after Morocco's King Mohammed VI decided to skip the event over a row with Algeria concerning Western Sahara.

"The summit is postponed to give more time to solve the dispute and hold the next summit without problems," Mauritanian Foreign Minister Mohamed Vall Ould Bellal told source.

Maghreb delegates confirmed the Tripoli summit had been postponed.

Libya declined to comment. Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam had earlier said the summit would be held on May 25-26.

Moroccan stand

The monarch of Morocco decided against attending the summit over what the kindgdom called neighbouring Algeria's "surprising official positions" on Western Sahara that have hurt Moroccan interests.

The king was to be instead represented in Tripoli by Morocco's Foreign Minister Mohamed Benaissa, government officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said .

The Moroccan Foreign Ministry confirmed reports that the king would not attend the first gathering since 1994 of heads of state of the five Maghreb nations.

"Algeria has taken the responsibility of compromising an opportunity to relaunch ... (North African) construction," the ministry statement said.

Libyan leader Muammar al-Qadhafi organised the summit in hopes of relaunching the Union for an Arab Maghreb, which has never got off the ground, largely because of tensions between Morocco and Algeria over Western Sahara.

Practical plans

Morocco's Information Minister Nabil bin Abdullah, speaking to Aljazeera from Rabat, hoped North African leaders would resolve their differences and propose practical plans to reactiviate the union.

"The summit is a positive development, so we hope that this summit will contribute to building the Arab Maghreb Union," bin Abdullah said.

But he blamed Algeria for not cooperating to solve the difference on the Western Sahara.

"It is regrettable that Algeria is still persisting with its approach by going in the opposite direction of Moroccan interests," bin Abdullah said.

The Foreign Ministry said that statements by Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika supporting independence for Western Sahara "directly affect the higher interests of the (Moroccan) kingdom".

Morocco annexed the vast mineral-rich territory colonised by Spain.

Polisario Front rebels based in camps in southern Algeria once waged a desert war against Morocco to gain the territory's independence.

Fruitless dialogue

Years of UN efforts to organise a referendum on self-determination have been fruitless, in large part because Morocco and the Polisario failed to agree on who could be counted as voters.

Morocco has proposed a political solution to the Western Saharan conflict providing for autonomy.

Polisario leader Mohamed Abdelaziz was quoted over the weekend as saying that the rebels could decide to rearm themselves.

Abdelaziz told a news conference last week that a ceasefire in effect since 1991 and surveyed by the UN was called so that the referendum could be organised.

The region's residents "could take up arms again if such an objective is not reached", Abdelaziz was quoted as saying by the Polisario news agency.

The Polisario leader saluted Algeria's "constant position in support of the Sahraoui people's legitimate right to self-determination".

Support reaffirmed

The Algerian president sent a message spelling out his country's support "in favour of people colonised or under foreign occupation".

Last month, the UN Security Council extended the UN's mission to the Western Sahara for another six months, until the end of October and called on the Polisario to free Moroccan prisoners it has held for years.

Reporting from Tripoli, source said earlier that the optimism being echoed by the summit organisers was not consistent with the realities on the ground.

Algeria's support for the Polisario had cast a dark shadow on the summit, al-Dib said.

The summit was to focus on economic cooperation between member states and easing the flow of goods across the borders.

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