Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika Thursday said he had assured US President George W. Bush he is committed to economic and political reforms and establishing the rule of law in the strife-torn nation.
"Algeria is resolutely committed to pursuing ongoing economic and political reforms to complete the transition to a dynamic market economy that creates jobs and wealth, and to definitively establish the rule of law," he said on leaving a White House meeting with Bush.
Bouteflika, making his first trip to Washington, also said that US investment in Algeria would expand beyond oil and gas into other economic sectors, and that both sides would soon sign a deal to encourage that process.
"This is an exceptional time in the relationship between Algeria and the United States," said the Algerian leader. They had also discussed efforts to contain the threat of terrorism, he said.
A US administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Bouteflika and US officials would sign a trade and investment framework agreement Friday at the US Trade Representative's office.
For his part, Bush urged Bouteflika to improve human rights in Algeria, and urged progress on political reform, the official said.
Bush and Bouteflika -- the first Algerian head of state to visit Washington in 16 years -- also discussed energy matters as well as issues pertaining to the North African region and the Western Sahara, said the US official.
In remarks to reporters in the White House driveway, the Algerian leader said he and the US president had also discussed the situation in the Maghreb, development efforts in Africa, and the Middle East peace process.
He also said he had informed Bush that Algeria was determined to pursue efforts to bolster the five-nation Arab Maghreb Union so that it can become "an organization for integration, in favor of peace, cooperation and concord among the peoples of the region."
Civil war broke out in Algeria after the army in 1992 prevented the now outlawed fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) from taking power by calling off the second round of general elections that the FIS had been poised to win.
The violence since then is estimated by the authorities to have claimed more than 100,000 mainly civilian lives.
Moreover, Bouteflika who faces mass unrest among the ethnic Berber minority and protests over a bloody police crackdown.Riots first broke out in Kabylie after the death in police custody of a Berber youth on April 18.
Berbers and other indigenous North African communities make up about a third of Algeria's population of 31 million, which daily contends with housing shortages, a declining standard of living and an unemployment rate of 30 percent.
The Berber unrest has found an echo among impoverished mainstream Arab Algerians, who have taken to the streets in the hundreds of thousands in several towns outside Kabylie – WASHINGTON (AFP)
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