The leader of the Western Saharan Polisario Front independence movement has said he would release 300 of the Moroccan prisoners his group is holding in Algeria from a 1975-91 war.
Mr Mohamed Abdulaziz said the release, expected today, was in response to a request from Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy and to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
It would be the largest group of prisoners yet released by the Algerian-backed movement, campaigning for independence of the mineral-rich Western Sahara, controlled by Morocco.
The move would still leave some 600 Moroccans detained atPolisario's headquarters in Tindouf, southwestern Algeria.
Both Morocco and Algeria, Polisario's main backer in its war against Morocco, are under increasing international pressure to settle a dispute which has slowed regional integration.
Two weeks ago, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan,exasperated by lack of progress towards a settlement, toldMorocco it should accept the latest version of a U.N. peaceplan.
Polisario agreed to a ceasefire brokered by the UnitedNations in 1991 in exchange for a referendum om the future of the territory. No referendum on whether to choose independence, semi-autonomy or integration with Morocco has taken place.
The United Nations has called on Polisario to release allthe prisoners, captured Moroccan soldiers and airmen, it hasdetained since the armed conflict ended in 1991.
Most have been held for more than 20 years at Tindouf, near where some 160,000 Western Saharan refugees, supporters of Polisario, live.