French President to visit Algeria

France president Jacque Chirac will on Thursday pay a visit to Algeria. Sources at the Algerian Presidency said that the visit was not be scheduled until two days before.

During this visit, the French President will meet his Algerian peer Abdul Aziz Butaflika on a lunch banquet in Algiers after which he will return back immediately to Paris.

This visit, however, is of a special significance between the two Presidents as Chirac was the first among foreign presidents to congratulate Butaflika directly after his winning of the presidential elections which took place on Thursday.

Chirac's congratulations came in a written message that carried much compliments and good wishes of continued work and cooperation between the two countries and then it was followed by a telephone call between the two Presidents.

Algerian- French relations witnessed a new move during the first Presidential term of Butaflika who together with Chirac gave a strong impetus to relations between the two countries. Relations which witnessed since the beginning of the 1990 a stalemate because of the security problems in Algeria, especially the high-jacking of the French airline plane and the assassination of French nuns.