The U.N.'s Western Sahara envoy met Morocco's foreign minister Monday, official media reported, during a new tour of the region to push for a peaceful resolution to the frozen conflict.

Christopher Ross was received by Salaheddine Mezouar and his deputy Mbarka Bouaida, Morocco's MAP new agency said, without giving further details of the meeting.

Young protesters have clashed with Moroccan security forces in Laayoune, the main city of Western Sahara, torching a police vehicle, a rights activist in the disputed territory said on Tuesday.

The protesters hurled petrol bombs at the security forces who threw rocks in response and chased them, said Hamoud Iguilid from the Moroccan Association of Human Rights.

Moroccan police violently suppressed a peaceful protest in the Western Sahara against a planned EU fishing accord with Rabat that covers the disputed territory's waters, witnesses said Monday.

About 50 demonstrators, many of them women, gathered in the Laayoune city center on Saturday evening carrying banners and chanting slogans, including "stop taking our resources," one witness told Agence France Presse by phone.

The United States said Friday that a plan drawn up by Morocco regarding the autonomy of Western Sahara was "serious, realistic and credible" ahead of a meeting between President Barack Obama and King Mohammed VI.

"Morocco's autonomy plan is serious, realistic and credible," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Ministers from countries across the Sahel and Maghreb agreed Thursday to create a border security training center in a bid to confront Islamist-linked violence plaguing the huge desert region.

Delegates hailed the proposal in the "Rabat Declaration" adopted by 19 countries at a conference in Morocco's capital as an important step towards curbing jihadist unrest in the Sahara, notably in Mali and Libya.

The diplomatic ruckus between Morocco and Algeria over human rights in Western Sahara has revived the historic animosity between North Africa's arch rivals, as regional changes challenge a decades-old status quo.

Analysts say key factors explaining the rising tensions between the neighboring countries, whose differences are rooted in the Western Sahara conflict, include chronic instability in the Sahel region, and a possible leadership change in Algeria next year.

Amid new tensions over Western Sahara, a U.N. envoy said Wednesday there was still no hope of convening face-to-face talks on the disputed territory between Morocco and pro-independence rebels.

Morocco, which occupies the territory, recalled its ambassador to Algiers as the U.N. Security Council held talks on Western Sahara. Algeria is a key backer of the Polisario Front independence movement.

Morocco on Wednesday decided to recall its ambassador to Algeria over President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's "provocative" comments about the disputed Western Sahara, the foreign ministry said.

"This decision comes after a growing number of provocative and hostile acts by Algeria, towards the kingdom," and particularly a speech by the Algerian head of state at a meeting in Abuja on Monday, the Moroccan ministry said in a statement.

Algeria on Tuesday branded as unacceptable comments published by official Moroccan media in response to criticism of its human rights policy in Western Sahara, in the latest barbed exchange between Rabat and Algiers.

The insults by the North African arch-rivals come ahead of a report to be presented to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday by special envoy Christopher Ross, who visited the region this month.

Bloody clashes erupted between police and pro-independence protesters in Western Sahara, a human rights group said Monday, as the U.N. envoy wrapped up his latest visit to the disputed territory.

The weekend clashes, in the towns of Laayoune and Smara, coincided with a three-day trip to the territory by Christopher Ross in a new bid to push for a peaceful resolution to the decades-old conflict.