The New French President Visits Gas Rich Algeria

07-13-2007

French President Nicolas Sarkozy took the frosty edge off ties with Algeria during his first visit outside Europe, saying France and its colony for 132 years must bury a rocky past and reinvent the future.

He announced an invitation from President Abdelaziz Bouteflika for a state visit to Algeria in November.

"I came here neither to injure nor to excuse myself," Sarkozy said after meeting Bouteflika, referring to a rift between the two nations that has festered since French parliament passed a law in 2005 to put a positive spin on colonial history.
Then-President Jacques Chirac, Sarkozy`s predecessor, rescinded the law. But Bouteflika has demanded an apology for colonial-era crimes, mainly linked to the bloody seven-year independence war, and a planned friendship treaty has never been signed.

Sarkozy later went to neighboring Tunisia, another former colony, for a dinner with President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. A visit to Morocco, which raised its terror alert status Friday, was abruptly canceled with Moroccan officials citing a calendar conflict.

Sarkozy is pushing for closer French ties to Algeria`s oil-and-gas giant Sonatrach, and he told reporters that Bouteflika said his gas-rich country wants to be prepared for the era of hydrocarbons and become a full economic partner.

Sarkozy made no mention of joint efforts with France at fighting terrorism, a subject he discussed in depth on a 2006 visit as interior minister. Algeria faces an upsurge in attacks by an al-Qaida affiliate that also has threatened to target France. The United States considers Algeria a firm ally in the fight against terrorism.

Relations between France and Algeria the jewel in the colonial crown before it won independence in 1962 have for decades been marked by passion. But they took a dive with the 2005 bid by the French to show colonialism in a more positive light.

"I have come to Algeria to take part in an entente between two sovereign peoples who have a rocky history but who now want to resolutely turn toward the future," Sarkozy said.