U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Moroccan King Mohammed VI discussed Wednesday their countries' strategic alliance and efforts to achieve peace and security in Africa and the Middle East, Biden's office said.

The vice president arrived in Morocco earlier Wednesday for bilateral talks and to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit being held in Marrakesh.

Two of Morocco's main advocacy groups said Monday they would boycott a global human rights forum later this month, after accusations that the government had interfered with their work.

The independent Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH) announced the boycott a day after organizing a protest in front of parliament against what it called a "systemic ban" on its activities.

Several thousand people demonstrated in Madrid on Sunday in support of independence for the disputed territory of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony in northwestern Africa.

About 3,000 protesters marched from Atocha railway station to the central Plaza de la Provincia behind a banner declaring "Sahara Free now!", an Agence France-Presse photographer said.

Hundreds of Moroccans rallied Sunday outside the country's parliament to protest alleged government interference in the work of independent human rights groups.

"We have a right to human rights!" protesters chanted outside the parliament building in Rabat, an Agence France-Presse reporter said.

Morocco arrested five people Saturday in the southern city of Marrakesh on suspicion of seeking to join jihadists in Iraq and Syria and of aiding terrorist activities, the interior ministry said.

Three of those arrested, whose identities were not given, were "preparing to join terrorist organisations in Syria and Iraq, in particular the Islamic State (IS)" group, a ministry statement said.

More than 300 African migrants tried to scramble over the border fence from Morocco into the Spanish territory of Ceuta on Tuesday, the local authorities said.

Two groups approached the wall one after the other before dawn but were prevented by the Moroccan police from climbing over, a Spanish government spokesman in the territory told Agence France Presse.

Morocco said Thursday it has arrested two jihadists who were planning to attack banks and multinational companies in the North African country and in France.

An interior ministry statement said a Frenchman and a Franco-Moroccan arrested on Monday had also been planning to join the Islamic State jihadist group.

Some 350 African migrants tried to storm a fence from Morocco into Spanish territory on Wednesday, authorities said, the latest in a wave of desperate arrivals at Europe's southern border.

Just three of the migrants who charged towards the seven-meter (23-foot) fence in separate locations at dawn made it into the territory of Melilla, the Spanish government delegation there said in a statement.

Morocco has arrested three men -- a Frenchman, a French-Moroccan and an Algerian -- accused of planning to join the Islamic State jihadist group, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.

The French-Moroccan and the Frenchman were detained on Monday after allegedly "engaging in activism and propaganda" including disseminating press releases and video recordings "apologizing for terrorist acts," the MAP state news agency said, quoting a ministry statement.

Morocco, which has frequently reported the arrest of jihadists and is concerned over the number of its citizens fighting in Syria and Iraq, announced Saturday plans to bolster its security.

Interior Minister Mohamed Hassad said new measures will be deployed progressively to "confront the different threats facing the kingdom," according to his office.