Algeria calls for meticulous preparation for Maghreban summit

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has called for a meticulous preparation for the Maghreban summit, due next November in Algeria.

The meeting should be prepared meticulously to reach genuine solutions to the problems posed and not makeshift repairs destined to satisfy public opinion, President Bouteflika told Jordanian Al-Rai daily.

Procrastination only complicates problems, he warned.

Maghreban heads of state are scheduled to meet next November in a first summit of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) in five years. The union -- set up in 1989 by Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, has been paralyzed since 1994 due to political differences between member countries.

The Algerian president underlined that Maghreban heads of state are aware of the need to give a new impetus to the UMA process.

He renewed Algeria's determination to do its best to contribute to the reviving drive, because, he said, "Maghreban countries are doomed to live together in a fecund space of peace and stability."