New York, 16/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Saturday, Morocco's foreign minister Mohammed Benaissa, who is participating in the UN's annual assembly in New York, called for the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla (and the nearby islands "occupied by Spain") to be returned to Morocco, describing the restoration of his country's territorial integrity as an absolute priority. His statement may well raise tension between Spain and Morocco, already tense at the time of the end of the fishing agreement (and increasingly divergent views on the future of Western Sahara and the Persil/Toura Island incident recently occupied by both Morocco and the Spanish army). Benaissa said Morocco didn't what they felt was basically a political issue to be militarised, noting the Spain knew that Persil Island (even at the time of the Spanish Protectorate) had never appeared on many map as belonging to Spain. On Ceuta and Melilla, he said that Morocco was still willing to negotiate with its Spanish neighbours, adding that other European states had occupied countries for years at a stretch without that ever giving them sovereignty over them (citing the example of Gibraltar which Spain claimed 'despite the long British presence on the Rock").