BERLIN, April 19 (Reuters) - European Union president Germany said on Thursday it was pleased Morocco and the Algeria-based Polisario independence movement had submitted proposals on the future of Western Sahara to the U.N. "The EU presidency welcomes the fact that the U.N. has received new proposals from Morocco and the Saharan independence movement Frente Polisario for a possible resolution of the years-long Western Sahara conflict," Germany's foreign ministry said in a statement. Earlier this month, both Polisario and Morocco handed the United Nations proposals for the future of the desert territory of 260,000 people, annexed by Morocco after Spain abandoned its colonial occupation in 1975. The statement said Morocco had also presented its plan for the creation of an autonomous Western Sahara to Germany, which holds the EU's rotating presidency until the end of June. "The European Union supports all efforts of the U.N., on the basis of U.N. Security Council resolutions, to get a peaceful resolution to this conflict, which has already caused so much human suffering," the statement said. The Security Council is due to discuss Western Sahara on Friday, when it considers extending the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force in the resource-rich territory, which expires at the end of the month. The Western Sahara, covering an area larger than Britain, has lucrative phosphate reserves and rich fishing grounds. Many thousands of Sahrawis live in refugee camps across the border in Algeria, while Moroccan arrivals in the territory now outnumber the original inhabitants.
