Morocco's Islamist-led government on Friday presented a new European Union-funded plan to promote women's rights and equality, but without earlier measures to legalize abortion and support single mothers.

Moroccan women are certain to win at least 10 percent of parliament seats in polls on Friday, but the kingdom needs to deepen reforms to advance equality in the male-dominated politics, activists say.

The issue of women in Parliament has returned to centre stage in Morocco following the country's recent legislative elections. In 2002, women were elected to 35 of the lower house of the Moroccan legislature's 325 seats; on September 7th, 2007, only 34 were selected.

National elections last October in Morocco brought 34 women to the first chamber of Parliament, but while the female MPs have proven effective legislators, their task has not been easy.

Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at the National Democratic Institute (NDI), Leslie Campbell, hailed Morocco's reforms promoting women's participation in politics and electoral transparency.

King Mohammed VI announced on Wednesday the lifting of Morocco's reservations on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), describing them as obsolete.

A French women's rights group that led major marches to denounce violence to women in France's immigrant heavy suburbs is opening its first formal chapter in the Muslim world - in Morocco.

The progress made by Morocco in the field of gender equality is an example in the Arab world, visiting MP Lale Akgün from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the German federal parliament (Bundestag) said Tuesday.

Figures published by the Ministry of the Interior show that percentage of female candidates on supplemental lists has risen from 4.8% in 2003 to 15.7% this year. Yet, only 3.4% of candidates on the regular lists are women.

Morocco has just been through the last phases of its local elections. The reforms that were put in place for the occasion have indeed led to “technical” progress in the management of local communes, such as the voting of young people and women.