During their first direct negotiations in seven years on June 19-20, Morocco stuck to its proposal for limited autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty, while the Polisario Front maintained its demand for a referendum with a choice of autonomy or independence.

"We would encourage all the parties in these talks in Manhasset on Friday to sit down and be as cooperative and as constructive as possible in order to provide a better future for the people of Western Sahara," said Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Thursday "we hope they will get to substantive issues and that there will be further progress."

But the most likely outcome from the two days of talks at the secluded Greentree Estate in Manhasset, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of New York City, is agreement on another meeting _ or a series of meetings, said U.N. officials and diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

Morocco and the Polisario Front agreed to meet after the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on April 30 urging talks over the phosphate-rich region. The talks are being held under the auspices of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's personal envoy for Western Sahara, Peter Van Walsum.

Morocco, whose occupation of the former Spanish colony in 1975 sparked a 16-year war with the Polisario guerrillas, has insisted that its autonomy plan, unveiled in early April, offers "the only realistic solution."

The Polisario Front, an indigenous independence movement backed by Algeria, maintains that its April proposal for a referendum with independence as an option is crucial to achieving self-determination for the people of Western Sahara, and to complete the territory's decolonization.

Morocco and Mauritania split Western Sahara after its Spanish colonizers left the territory in 1975. Full-scale war broke out, and Morocco took over the whole territory after Mauritania pulled out in 1979.

The fighting, which pitted 15,000 Polisario guerrillas against Morocco's U.S.-equipped army, ended in 1991 with a U.N.-negotiated cease-fire that called for a referendum on the region's future. But after 15 years and the expenditure of more than US$600 million (€448 million), the U.N. has been unable to resolve the standoff or hold the referendum.

Former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III tried for years to broker a settlement on behalf of the United Nations.

He organized talks in 1997 and again in May 2000 to try to salvage plans for an independence referendum, but no progress was made because Morocco and Polisario could never agree on voter lists. A 2003 U.N. peace plan that envisioned temporary autonomy followed by a referendum in which both Saharawis and Moroccan settlers would vote was accepted by Polisario but rejected by Morocco. The following year, Baker gave up.

Ahmed Boukhari, the Polisario's U.N. representative, said Thursday that if Morocco respects the Security Council resolution and treats the proposals presented by the two parties equally "then there will be hopes for the peace process engaged in Manhasset, and this round will be positive for that process."

"However, taking account of the latest statement by Morocco officials, we have no assurance nor hopes that Morocco is going to respect the terms of the resolution, and it is going to threaten the peace process like they destroyed Mr. James Baker's efforts in 2003," Boukhari said.

Repeated calls to Morocco's U.N. Mission on Wednesday and Thursday seeking comment on the government's expectation for the talks were not returned.

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