MARRAKESH, Morocco, December 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday, December 3, continued a whirlwind tour of North Africa hyped as an attempt to shore up support for the war on terror and encourage political and economic reform.

He held talks with King Mohammed VI, Prime Minister Driss Jettou and several groups involved mainly in education programs and youth.

Moroccan officials quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) said Powell discussed with the monarch terror combat, an issue that came to the fore following the attacks in Casablanca in May that killed 45 people.

He also urged further negotiations to resolve the Western Sahara dispute, while reaffirming U.S. support for the U.N.-backed Baker plan for the former Spanish colony.

"The U.S. has no intention of imposing a solution" in the conflict between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front over the territory annexed by Morocco in 1975, Powell told a press conference.

"We need to focus on the responses to the Baker plan," he said, referring to a plan devised by former U.S. secretary of state James Baker, which has been accepted by both the Polisaro and Algeria urging further negotiations to end the impasse.

Morocco has lodged "major objections" to the plan, under which the territory's final status would be decided in a referendum five years from now following a period of broad autonomy.

Following talks with the Moroccan monarch, Powell left for Algeria, the last leg of his tour.

In remarks coinciding with the visit, a human rights group charged that the Moroccan government had tortured Islamists in the wake of the Casablanca bombings.

The independent Moroccan Organization for Human Rights (OMDH) said the massive wave of arrests and trials following the May 16 attacks had been marked by torture, abductions and violations of the right of defense.

At least 14 people have been sentenced to death and many others have been sentenced to long periods of imprisonment in dozens of trials since the bombings.

Abdelaziz Nouidi, a leader of the rights organization, said the trials had been marred by violations of the rights of the accused and their lawyers.

"Violations of the rights of the accused and their lawyers concern abductions, torture, searches and rejection of the required formalities," Nouidi said.

"Some of the accused have been prosecuted and tried on the basis of simple statements by other accused."

Nouidi said citizens had been simply abducted and held without charge.

The association also denounced "severe" prison sentences imposed on several journalists, and asked for several minors to be pardoned, including twin 15-year-old sisters who received five-year jail sentences.

A new anti-terrorism law broadens the definition of terrorism, gives police and security forces sweeping powers of investigation and arrest.

In Tunisia, where he began his three-country tour on Tuesday, December 2, Powell called on the country to facilitate political reforms and a free press.

Powell, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the country in almost a decade, told journalists that Tunisia needed to focus on "political reform".

"People are expecting more to happen with respect to political reform and with respect to openness in the society," he said following talks with President Zine El-Abidine ben Ali.

But he praised the country for improvements in education, health and women's affairs.

Powell said he had encouraged Tunisian leaders to institute reforms in order to provide more opportunity for its people.

"We also talked about the need for an open press, open media. I had a good, candid conversation, with the president, that Tunisia has accomplished so much, that people are expecting more to happen with respect to political reform and with respect to openness in the society," he said.

A published State Department background note on Tunisia criticizes the country for lack of full political freedom, and curbs on the press and freedom of expression.

It refers to "frequent reports of widespread torture and abuse of prisoners, especially political prisoners, by security officers".

Asked if his visit, preceding that of French President Jacques Chirac and a European-North African summit later this week, marked an outbreak of rivalry between the U.S. and Europe, Powell replied he was competing "neither with Chirac nor with the summit".

But Tunisian human rights groups and opposition parties, however, lashed out at the visit.

"We do not welcome U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell here because the U.S. is occupying Iraq and continuing its support for Israel to kill Palestinians," Mokhtar Trifi, chairman of the Tunisian Human Rights League was quoted by the BBC News Online as saying.

The plan, entitled the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative, "will provide funding and a framework for the U.S. to work together with governments and people in the Arab world to expand economic, education and political opportunity," said the State Department.