both the parties in the United Nations. James A. Baker, a diplomat in the region worked out a couple of settlement plans, called Baker Plan after 1997. In the first plan, he proposed autonomy to the region with foreign affairs and defense managed by Morocco. The plan was rejected by Polasario and Algeria indicating that any proposal without independence could not be accepted. They also argued that the count of natives should be based on the census of 1975 and not based on migrants from Morocco in the interim period. The second proposal called for a referendum after five years of autonomy. The plan was accepted by Morocco initially and it was to be sealed in Houston. The Accord Baker convened the first direct talks between Morocco and Polisario in Lisbon on 23 June 1997. The one voter identification plan suggested by Baker was agreed by both parties in the second round of talks in London. The parties also agreed to make provisions of troop withdrawal. The third round of talks in Lisbon on 29 and 30 August brought out issues of political prisoners, and code of conduct of referendum. The final round of talks, which was held at Baker Institute of Public Policy at Rice University in Houston between 14th and 16 September 1997 and came to be known as Houston Accord. Both the parties signed the final document listing out all agreements, and was documented as UN doc. S/1997/742 par 4-13. It was the first time in the peace process that any agreement was signed between the rival parties. Both the parties, published a timetable of action items, with the major one being voter identification. Morocco wanted to augment the voter list based on the census taken during the Spanish time of 1970s, while Polisario rejected the proposal, leading to the prevention of referendum of the accord. The plan was rejected by Morocco later and Baker left the position in 2004. References External links UN secretary general's special envoy on autonomy for Western Sahara History of Houston 1997 in Texas 1997 in Morocco Western Sahara peace process 1997 documents Morocco–United States relations