Polisario says risk of war if W.Sahara talks fail

ALGIERS, Dec 21 (Reuters) - War may break out again in Western Sahara if U.N.-sponsored talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front independence movement fail, Polisario said on Friday.

A third round of U.N.-brokered talks to resolve Africa's longest-running territorial dispute are set for Jan. 7-9 in Manhasset, New York.

If they fail, "the Moroccan government will assume the full consequences that would result from the failure of the negotiating process and notably the resumption of military hostilities", the Algerian official news agency APS quoted a Polisario statement as saying.

Peacekeepers have watched over Western Sahara since 1991 when the United Nations brokered a ceasefire to end a guerrilla war between independence movement Polisario Front and Morocco, which annexed the resource-rich northwest African territory in 1975.

The ceasefire terms included holding a referendum to let the inhabitants decide their future but the vote has still not happened.