Algiers - French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in the
Algerian capital Algiers Monday for a three-day visit aimed at
securing lucrative business contracts and smoothing relations still
troubled by the two countries' colonial history and the bloody war
that ended it.
Sarkozy was accompanied by some 150 French entrepreneurs eager to
profit from Algeria's economic recovery following a ten-year civil
war in which an estimated 200,000 people were killed.
Contracts worth some 3.4 billion euros (5 billion dollars) are to
be either signed or agreed during the visit, half of them in the
energy sector. In addition, the two countries are expected to
formulate an agreement on closer cooperation in the field of nuclear
energy.
The visit was preceded by controversial statements by the Algerian
minister for war veterans, Mohammed Cherif Abbas, who referred to
Sarkozy's distant Jewish heritage and said that his election as
French president was engineered by 'the Jewish lobby.'
Sarkozy has angered many Algerians because of his refusal to
apologize for France's colonial activities, saying in the past that
colonialism was not all bad.
In an interview at the weekend with the Algerian news agency APS,
Sarkozy said that there were 'wounds on both sides that have not yet
healed,' but added that both countries must now 'turn towards the
future.'
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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