Algiers - French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in
Algeria on Monday to start a three-day visit aimed at securing
lucrative business contracts and smoothing ties still troubled by the
two countries' colonial history and the bloody war that ended it.
Sarkozy immediately met his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz
Bouteflika after his arrival at Algiers airport.
Sarkozy is 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.
His delegation also includes eight cabinet members, including
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Justice Minister Radhida Dati,
who is of Algerian-Moroccan ethnic background.
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.'
On Monday, Abbas was not part of the delegation of cabinet members
to greet Sarkozy at the airport.
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.'
Instead of a previously-envisaged friendship treaty which would
have addressed the issue of the colonial past and the war, France and
Algeria now are to sign a partnership agreement.
Sarkozy is also pursuing his proposal of a Mediterranean region
union with concrete projects in transportation and energy, water
supplies and education.
But such a union would not replace the cooperation now in place
between the European Union and North Africa, he told APS.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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