Morocco denies asking France to sanction press correspondent in Rabat

Spokesman of the Moroccan government, Khalid Alioua, denied on Thursday news reports that Prime Minister Abderrahman Youssoufi has asked for the intervention of French peer Lionel Jospin to have the correspondent of French news agency AFP sanctioned or suspended.

A Moroccan daily Rissalat Al-Oumma reported that Youssoufi personally contacted Jospin to interfere with AFP to obtain that the agency's correspondent in Morocco be sanctioned or suspended.The daily had said that this action was taken following the controversy entailed by the correspondent's news that Morocco had arrested members of an Algerian armed group which perpetrated an attack in Algeria.

The arrest was immediately denied by the Moroccan government.

The spokesman said the head of government has not sent any letter to French officials regarding the issue.