Bouteflika to visit US at the beginning of next year

Diplomatic sources in Algeria said yesterday that Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will visit the USA at the invitation of US President Bill Clinton at the beginning of next year.

It will be the second meeting between them within a year of Bouteflikas' election, after the two met on the margin of the funeral of the late Moroccan monarch, King Hassan II.

These positive developments in the US - Algerian relations are coming at a time of setback in French - Algerian relations is taking place, and where these relations are exposed from time to storms, despite attempts to reestablish them, as the French foreign minister says.