Algeria strongly condemned the French government for its decision to recognize plans for Western Sahara's autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty on Thursday.

Algeria was informed of the decision by France in recent days, an Algerian foreign ministry statement added.

The ministry also said Algeria would draw all the consequences from the decision and hold the French government alone completely responsible.

The French foreign ministry did not immediately comment on the Algerian statement.

Algeria's position on the Western Sahara conflict is to implement a United Nations plan which includes a self-determination referendum. Algeria considers Morocco's presence in the Sahara an occupation.

Morocco considers Western Sahara its own but an Algeria-backed independence movement, the Polisario Front, demands a sovereign state.

Morocco took over most of Western Sahara in 1975 from colonial Spain. That started a guerrilla war with the Sahrawi people's Polisario Front, which says the desert territory in the northwest of Africa belongs to it.

The United Nations brokered a cease-fire in 1991 and sent in a mission to help organize a referendum on the future of the territory, but the sides have been deadlocked since.