UN chief proposes way out on Sahara hunger striker

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon called the Spanish foreign minister on Thursday to suggest a way out of a Spain-Morocco impasse over a hunger strike by a Western Sahara independence activist, Ban's spokesman said.

The U.N. secretary-general would also meet with the Moroccan foreign minister on Friday, spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters.

Aminatou Haidar has been at Lanzarote airport in Spain's Canary Islands refusing food for 26 days since Moroccan authorities put her back on a plane when she returned home to Western Sahara's capital Laayoune after a trip to New York.

The hunger strike by Haidar, 43, has strained relations between Spain and Morocco, which annexed most of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, in 1975. The future of the territory is the subject of deadlocked U.N.-led negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario Sahara independence group.

In his telephone call with Spain's Miguel Angel Moratinos, Ban "proposed possible steps to resolve the situation," Nesirky said. He declined to give details.

Ban "expressed concerns about (Haidar's) deteriorating health and emphasized that a solution needed to be found with the utmost urgency," Nesirky said.

A Spanish doctor said on Saturday that Haidir's health was close to an irreversible deterioration which could kill her even if she abandoned the hunger strike. Spain's governing Socialist party has asked her to give up her strike.

Morocco refuses to have Haidar back unless she swears loyalty to its head of state, King Mohammed.

Haidar's lawyer has said her Moroccan passport was confiscated at Laayoune airport when she stated Moroccan as her nationality, while Morocco says she renounced her citizenship without pressure from officials.

Haidar has accused the Spanish government of violating her human rights by allowing Morocco to send her to Lanzarote, and has refused offers of refugee travel papers and a Spanish passport.