President Zeroual resumes consultations to appoint a new prime minister

Algerian President Liamine Zeroual is resuming consultations he started Tuesday with important Algerian political figures.

High-level Algerian sources told ArabicNews.com that these consultations focused on the names nominated as potential successors for Prime Minister Ahmed O'yehia.

They said the president received today Ahmed Ben Bitor, a member of the Nations Council and Mohamed El-Saleh Mantouri, the head of the social and the economical council, yet nothing was said about the content of these consultations.

The sources said the Prime Minister practically placed his resignation in the hands of President Zeroual after making sure he would not be approved to remain in his current post by the military bodies.

The sources did not clarify whether Zeroual officially accepted or refused the resignation.

President Zeroual had called for early elections in which he decided not to run for the presidential office again.